“This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don’t like women in skirts, and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt - I think – then you have the pants under the skirt, and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants, underneath the skirt, and you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today. [Laughs.] I have to think these things up… you know! Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono, so we had quite a fight.”

I’ve been so irked by the fact that they’re making a new movie of Grey Gardens – was the Maysles‘ perfect documentary film not enough? – that I’ve been ignoring the latest wave of Grey Gardens fandom. But cult favourites all fall prey to the clumsiness of Hollywood eventually, and maybe now is probably the right time for Grey Gardens. Living large on nothing in the midst of galloping disrepair is an interesting allegory for the times, and maybe Grey Gardens mania is a more honest reaction to the current state of America than, say, the cultural offerings in the previous post. In an interview he did for in the Criterion DVD’s Special Features, Marc Jacobs talks about the clip from the real Grey Gardens, above, which shows the real Little Edie talking about her avant-garde outfit (the interview with him doesn’t seem to be on YouTube). Jacobs loves her DIY style and panache and mentions that her line “This is the best costume for today” has been the motto around his studio for years. Thanks to KEEHNAN for inspiring this by posting on Grey Gardens here and here, better than I could have, based on the amazing photos published by the NYT. Another video of Edie here.

I love this art object/piece of furniture by artist Fia Backstrom, who has had a number of exhibitions in Vancouver. From the NYT article “Artful Lodgers“:

Fia Backstrom describes her apartment near the Gowanus Canal as a perpetual battle between organization and chaos. ‘‘It is simultaneously studio and bed in one,’’ she says. But she has silence, solitude and a full view of the sky. Backstrom’s question-mark chaise was part of her summer show, ‘‘that social space between speaking and meaning,’’ at White Columns, and the wallpaper is her 2003 work ‘‘1.000.000 people incl. satellite suburbs.’’ Her shows ‘‘A Choreographed Exhibition’’ at Le Centre d’Art Contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson in France and ‘‘Pottery and Poetry’’ at the Apartment in Vancouver, Canada, both open this month, and she is currently reading ‘‘The K. Protocol,’’ a book of haiku by the artist Karl Holmqvist, whom Backstrom calls ‘‘pivotal to my practice.’’

This fantastic house at the intersection of modern and 60s hippie is the Greene Residence, built in 1961 by architect Herb Greene in Norman, Oklahoma. Greene built the house for himself and his family. It was dubbed the “Prairie Chicken” house by Life magazine shortly after it was built, and the name just stuck. Greene was influenced by the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and by architect Bruce Goff, and in turn it seems obvious that Greene’s wavy forms have influenced the work of Frank Gehry. The photo was taken by Julius Shulman, the photographer most famous for his photos of the Case Study Houses in LA but who has also photographed thousands of buildings all over the US, including many more in Oklahoma. The photos are taken from Taschen’s Modernism Rediscovered, now also a 4-part series of Shulman’s photos of forgotten modern masterpieces, including many previously unpublished photos from Shulman’s own archives. Totally worth buying if you’re a modernism person. Julius Shulman is still working. He’s 99 years old.

More photos of the house, by Lynne’s Lens on Flickr, here.

I first saw these amazing buildings, almost all of which have now either had their facades removed or have actually been demolished, in the November 2007 issue of Wallpaper. The BEST Products Company of Richmond, Virginia commissioned architect James Wines’ SITE (Sculpture In The Environment) to build nine commercial buildings for them in the 1970s and early 80s. BEST was founded and owned by the Lewises, a Virginia family with an interest in art and design. BEST stores were famous for their willingness to trade store merchandise for art and as a result the company, as well as the Lewises, gathered a significant collection of 20th century art. Much of the Lewis Collection can be seen at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. (See Wikipedia for a more detailed story.) The building above has supposedly appeared in more books on 20th century architecture than photographs of any other modern structure. Some interesting videos about the Best buildings are here. And Part 2 of this blog post is here.

Young Meagher’s Militant Guild of Rural Tailors seems to be a fashion line doubling as a museological collection of historical objects and textiles supposedly belonging to a revolutionary worldwide underground cult of rural tailors reaching back into early 19th C history. You can lose several hours if you fall into the web orbit of this extremely thoroughgoing narrative fantasy and its imaginary steampunkish realm. The combination of extremely high-quality tailoring (unfortunately only for men) and handcrafted fantasy props is, not surprisingly, very big in Japan, one of MGRT’s biggest markets. “Audiences” seems a more appropriate term than “markets,” because even though these clothes are commodities, they also seem part of a larger performance. The fact that these objects are presented as props and artifacts rather than as mere products seems to be a part of a rebellion against cheap meaninglessness of the commodity market and a hopeful alliance with quality and historical meaning, so that the company’s symbol – the hybrid brass knuckle scissors above – cleverly comes off as insignia rather than as a logo. As for the styles themselves, they seem to point to the American Civil War and more broadly to the 19th C in general, which seems to be a popular nostalgia at the moment and has ties to the eclectic antiquey references of steampunk. These photos are all from the Young Meagher website (be prepared for bleak, howling wind and antique train soundtracks) and their Flickr pool, which goes by the name Rural Tailor Research. Captions to photos below are from the Flickr pool. Thanks to B.C.M. for the tip.

Tailors Crown crafted from traditional scissor-parts taken from initiated tailors in exchange for the Brass Knuckle Guildsman’s Shears shown above and presented in clandestine annual ceremonies to bestow honor on the single guild member from across the international network thought to have most advanced the art of rural tailoring. The crown would be displayed in secret in the winner’s atelier for a year before it was then awarded to the next honoree (similar to the Stanley Cup).

Novice’s Veil Masks like this (and those below) were required to be worn by candidates seeking initiation in order to prevent nepotism influencing selection. Would-be guild tailors were referred to as “Fresh Faces” by the inner guild which refered to the practice adopted by candidate of decorating their masks in order to show a little bit more of the tailorwise dexterity during their application regimine. This reproduction and those below were created for GenArt during New York Fashion Week.

Reproduction Silk Hanger garment hanger covered in silk re-used from vintage neck-ties used by guild members to display new designs for consideration during the ceremony described above. Hangers like this would be hung from scissors which had been “stabbed” into the wall of a guildhall to present garments by rural tailors competing for the Tailor’s Crown. Created by L. J. Maher (AKA Meagher)

Commisioned from by Barney’s New York for use in holiday windows. Hand-cut silkscreened words from Handle’s Messiah printed onto strips of lambs-suede and hand-stitched through a fiberglass form. Hand sewn ostrich feather wings with cowhide banding brass snap-clipped to copper wing armatures. Hand=hammered shoulder and neck cladding leading to antique violin peg-head finial.

70s space age armchair, via backgarage, origin and name unknown. Does anyone know who or what made this? Does it actually bounce on that spring? Imagine eating breakfast in this chair – the breakfast you would perhaps dial up from a console. Every house should have a chair children will fight over.