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[Photos by KPA]
Left: Full display of whimsical hats with glaring videos and photos of Vogue fashion editor Anna Dello Russo
Right: Close-up of mannequin with hat
I emailed the display designer at the Bay asking why she juxtaposed the aggressive video with the lovely hats. And asked also who is the hat designer. But, I've had no answer so far.
I figured out the letters "J'ADR" which is a play on Christian Dior's perfume J'Adore, and which are the initials of Anna Dello Russo - J'adore Anna Dello Russo. Clever.
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I'm not sure why the window designer at the Bay Department Store has a display of whimsical hats alongside the aggressively flashing videos and giant photographs of Japan Vogue fashion editor-at-large Anna Dello Russo. The window display has a sign which directs us to the third floor designer clothes showcase "The Room" to view "Canadian visual journalist," a.k.a fashion blogger Tommy Ton's, homage to Dello Russo, who is apparently his muse. But nothing more on the hats.
The Italian Dello Russo is a very prominent and visible part of Vogue, which seems odd for someone who neither designs nor models the high fashion garments that fill up Vogue (she does own many of these clothes and often wears them). But this kind of prominence is not unusual. Jeanne Beker, Canada's famous fashion reviewer, covers fashion for television shows and several magazines. British fashion commentator Isabella Blow was the muse for milliners, and modeled their eccentric works wherever she went. André Leon Talley was editor-at-large for American Vogue, and was as famous as the models and designers he reviewed, showing up at fashion shows in large fur coats or capes (depending on weather and/or mood).
Back to Dello Russo. She looks transgendered, with long limbs and masculine features. I wonder why "visual journalist" blogger Tommy Ton, whose blog consists of large photographs of what he considers the fashion statement of the moment, has taken her on as his muse? I went through his category of subjects, and there is none for "beauty." In fact, his whole "categorizing" is haphazard and uninteresting. He has a category he calls "my favorite things" which say it all. I wonder what makes him so popular that he gets to spend time with Dello Russo (although quite frankly, I wouldn't spend any time with her) and proclaim her (him?) his muse? He looks like a strange creature himself; he looks homosexual. Perhaps her oddness and androgyny is his connection to her. So much for feminine beauty determining men's choices for muses.
Modern fashion is about the avant-garde, the eccentric, épater la bourgeoisie. As I wrote earlier, it is all about worshiping the ugly. Yet, how backward (and behind) these connoisseurs are. Beauty is the new avant-garde. The bourgeoisie is the guardian of our fashion heritage (of the rigorous standards of beauty). The lazy Dello Russo and Tommy Ton, and all those jet-setting fashion commentators and designers, have completely missed the boat.