Shop. Meditate. Shop some more. The Silence Room at Selfridges, London.

Please forgive the free association below. I blame the coffee because I am a product of my culture and we overcaffeinate. (On reflection, it is disturbing that my huge Cthulhu tiki mug has become a perfectly acceptable single serving of coffee.) Really this is just an exercise in sloppily stringing together some of the inspiring fashion items I’ve seen recently.

We begin with a great article over at Tokyo Telephone on Coconogacco, or the Coco-Ten Exhibition at Trans Art Tokyo. The idea here is that the students are able to present their clothes in context before the fashion show:

…the design students of the Coconogacco school curated a series of rooms to contextualize their work which served as art exhibitions in their own right, and it is those that we are going to be looking around today. What you are going to miss out on though is the very real context of these rooms, housed as they were in a deserted seventeen floor building where you could comfortably go 10 minutes without seeing anyone else, all in the chill of the Tokyo winter, the only sound being scraps of found music before you accidentally stumble across a noisecore band rehearsing.

Chiaki Moronaga at The Coco-Ten Exhibition at Trans Art Tokyo.

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Once you find a designer inspired by Russian philosophers there’s no going back.

Yvonne Kwok’s graduate collection, We Dance Like Little Mary’s Swaying to the Symphony of Destruction, is inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas around carnival, among other things:

The use of neoprene gives a fleshy effect and refers to how artist Folkert de Jong calls it: “gebakken lucht”, which is a Dutch saying and means “nonsense”. The use of cardboard and brads are inspired by the paper doll, which gives the collection a crafted feeling. The search for quick ways to optimize decorating is my reaction to the system because self-reflection is jeopardized by the lack of time, which for me is ultimately the essence of fashion.

Wow. Photos and more at thisispaper.

Fashion Beast is to be released, fittingly, in September. Avatar Press has the details. You can preorder the first of ten issues and variant covers through the site. Better yet, you can get them at your local comic book shop when it comes out.

Fashion Beast wraparound cover by Facundo Percio

Was on a Lovecraft pilgrimage in Providence, RI today when, summoned by air conditioning, I drifted in to the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art and overheard that today is free day. So the elevator breezes me up to the third floor, the doors open, and to my left there are blown-up 1954 René Bouché illustrations for Vogue and on the wall ahead are cycling movie clips of stylish people drinking. Whoa. Ok. It’s the museum’s “Cocktail Culture” exhibit. It’s outstanding, and tomorrow’s the last day (10am-5pm).

Red silk dress with cartridge pleats from the “Cocktail Culture” exhibit at the RISD Museum of Art. Designed by Norman Norell and Anthony Traina (under the Traina-Norell label), ca. 1949. From InStyle’s great slideshow of the highlights. The exhibit ends tomorrow (July 31st).

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Before we’re caught in the rip current of Fashion Week, a few words of appreciation for Txell Miras’ Fall/Winter 2011-2012 collection. Miras’ stubborn achromatism highlights her talent for layering fabrics and textures. Most of the looks are modern (”modern” here being interchangeable with “post-apocalyptic”) and, as always, her patterns keep the eye busy.

Fortunately for the models, they were all supplied with miners’ lamps to puncture the gloom. Some favorite looks and pieces:

Detail shot of above.

Great jacket patterns:

Love the exaggerated cowl hoods:

This should be interesting. In 1985, Malcolm McLaren commissioned a screenplay from Alan Moore for a film he was trying to get made called, Fashion Beast. The story is supposed to be loosely based on the life of Christian Dior and is, “…an updating of the Beauty and the Beast fable set in the fashion world”. Fashion Beast was never made into a movie, but next year Avatar Press is planning on releasing Moore’s screenplay as a 250-page graphic novel adapted by Antony Johnston (who adapted Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance - well worth the read) and drawn by Facundo Percio. The script can be downloaded here.

A page from Fashion Beast without colors or lettering.

For folks near Cambridge, MA, the Mobilia Gallery is showing “The Teapot Redefined 2010″ now until at least November 6th. Donna Rhae Marder’s sewn lace and wire teapots are included in this exhibit, which “explores the possibilities of the teapot form” using a variety of techniques and materials.

“Oval Geometric Lace Teapot”

“Oval Geometric Lace Teapot”, detail

Marder’s teapots are an homage to her mother, who passed away earlier this year. They are brilliantly crafted from her lace garments.

“Steaming Lace Teapot”

“Beige Lace Teapot”

“Beige Lace Teapot”, detail

I am so impressed and inspired by Renata Morales’ Fall 2010 collection. The output from her Montréal atelier over the last three seasons shows a delightfully idiosyncratic and highly technical style. It is a rare treat to find designers who aren’t slaves to the trend weathervane; who blaze their own trail. Below are some looks from her Fall 2010 collection.

From the Renata Morales Fall 2010 collection modeled by the stunning dancer, Mistaya Hemingway.

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There was an electric spirit in San Francisco’s City Hall the day I got married. Mayor Gavin Newsom had recently legalized same-sex marriage and I will never forget how moved I was to be getting married alongside same-sex couples. The news today that a federal judge has struck down Prop 8 makes me deeply happy.

From the SF Chronicle: Stuart Gaffney (left) and his husband John Lewis wait at the Philip Burton Federal Building for Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker to issue his ruling on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in San Francisco on Wednesday.