24.1.10

leaping leopards



Saw this girl coming out the door somewhere in Southbank, not far from the Tate Modern. She was 'posed' just like this and I asked her to basically freeze while I shot her. Didn't even give her a card - she told me her name and I forgot it (Holly, perhaps?) and I have no idea why she had a briefcase on a cold, quiet Sunday, or where she was going.

I'm sure she meant to wrap the scarf round, and you'd think I'd be bored to tears with leopard print by this point, but with everyone wearing it, I've become interested in how many variations on a theme I can see, and how they work it. I wonder, when we come back from Florida: will all the leopard prints be extinct?

What are you wearing today? Have you put away your leopard prints yet?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can never be tried of seeing to much Leopard! Classic pattern that will be around forever!!!

daisychain said...

I love it. So classic.

The Photodiarist said...

I LOVE leopard.

Susan said...

she looks great.
xoxo

meraldia said...

Oh, she looks amazing!

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Anonymous said...

Leopard is never over! I'm still going to rip out my leopard coat and scarf!

S
http://notjustmedical.wordpress.com

Pearl Westwood said...

I am planning on wearing my leo all through summer - not the faux fur tho!x

daniela kate morosini said...

i love her boots! i think her haircut really finishes the look off though. i don't think i can wear fur, do you?

coutureandcrumpets.blogspot.com

Thumbelina Fashionista said...

I am obsessed with leopard now. I recently bought a buttload of leopard...Leopard Louboutin wedges (that picture of the leopard Loub booties that you took has never left me), a leopard camisole, a leopard cardigan. Lanvin's Pre-fall collection was all about leopard, which tells me it's not going away anytime soon! Yay!

the style crusader said...

i honestly have nothing leopard print... except some french sole ballet flats (and those are nearly dead). i think i kind of missed the whole trend... even though i would kill for the LV leopard print scarf or a fabulous vintage fur jacket (still need to find that in portobello or brick lane)... don't worry though, the streets will still be full of leopard once you get back!! xx

Sarah Grace said...

I love it. I think when done right, leopard can be chic and sophisticated. When done wrong though it looks like a little girl trying to hard or kind of awkward. This picture is definitely an example of it done right :)

http://thebuzzonfashion.blogspot.com

Cindy Van Dyck said...

Love the coat!

Anonymous said...

I enjoy your photos, but I must say I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the references to American Apparel. I especially hate the soft porn American Apparel images on the side bar. I find their marketing so exploitative and cynical, and I'm no prude. I wouldn't expect you to put this post up, it's more a message to you. It's just a shame, because I like your work.

jill said...

Wow, that's an overwhelming response in favour of the leopard print! Thank you, each of you, for your take on it. (oh & Style Crusader I've found that, on Portobello Road at least, the price for a leopard print faux fur vintage jacket, compared to the same coat in non-leopard print, is much more expensive, so clearly the vendors are capitalising on this trend).

I'm glad you're not bored with it yet, because I've got more up my sleeve!

Anonymous: thank you for your helpful & honest feedback. (And of course, thank you for your compliment about my photos!). When I was contacted, out of the blue, in late December by a really nice guy @ American Apparel HQ, I was honoured, of course - he found me thru asking girls @ AA which blogs they liked - & it meant I was 'big' enough to bother with - but I also expressed to him my concerns that it might compromise the integrity of my blog.

Until then, I'd turned down requests to advertise or promote brands. That's different (in my view) than doing blog exchanges with people - or, as you might have noticed, referring in my posts - and linking - to all kinds of brands. I don't always have the chance to ask people where the got their clothes, but I'll usually compliment a random item of their clothing, and it's very often, say, Topshop, H&M, Zara, and, increasingly in London, American Apparel. (I didn't realise how much proportionately of my new, i.e non vintage clothes, is AA, but i've realised that all my 'staples - apart from my Motel Rocks leopard print faux fur coat, of course, and my vintage Portobello Road chocolate brown one - is American Apparel.)

So I said yes - even tho I only get paid if someone actually clicks on the ad and buys something online (so far that's one person). So it might not be worth my while to continue doing it. But especially, I don't want you - the people who come here - to feel I'm selling out of compromising my objectivity. And that's not what AA want, either: they sent me, along with the samples (that I happen to love and wear all the time) that there are guidelines, that I must say that I got these as free samples, that they're requesting my HONEST, unbiased opinion.

In my experience, the American Apparel people have been the opposite of exploitative and cynical: from the staff people at each branch, here and in London, to the people at the 'top', they've just been really nice people. But I'll certainly pass your comment onto my 'guy in LA', Milt.

And if anyone has reached this long in my dissertation here, I'd love other people's feedback, too.

I appreciate your feedback, Anonymous, & of course I'm posting your comment. I've always wanted this blog - like all my favourite blogs - to be a place where we can have a CONVERSATION, a virtual 'salon' where we can exchange ideas. This isn't a dictatorship: it's a democracy.

The only thing I ask - and expect - is that, since these are real people I'm posting, willing to put themselves out there to the public, that people keep their comments focused on the positive in general.

Which amazingly is what's been happening. I've not once had to delete a comment for being hurtful about the person's appearance. Not ONCE. That speaks volumes about all of you wonderful bloggers. So please, Anonymous, continue to visit & express your views in the same intelligent, reasonable, and honest way you have here. And for what it's worth: I can't control the ads, which change, & I think some of them are kind of cheesey/faux sexy, too: not my taste, and I'm no prude, either!

You won't believe this, but the post I was planning to do today - a girl I found in South Beach - just happens to be wearing top to toe American Apparel!

Pearl Westwood said...

I think if you can get some compensation for your hard work then why not! I know you love AA so I dont see whats wrong with advertising. I harp on about Chanel and Westwood too much on my blog but these are my favouite things so its natural. I mean its not like you never mentioned AA before the ad is it! I do really love their clothes too but hate their ads so much, they are too near pornographic for me and I am far from a prude, so yeah if the guy from AA is reading, why so much butt? Thats not going to put me off your blog, nothing would put me off your blog Jill, or the Sartorialist or blog de betty etc who also have the AA ads.

The Photodiarist said...

Jill -- absolutely nothing would prevent me from reading your blog -- no matter how many cheesy AA ads were featured. But I cannot lie -- the ads are a bit skeevy. They are on Sartorialist and Garance Dore too, so you are in good company and should not feel badly about putting them on your website if you are earning money from it. I just don't like the ads themselves -- but ever since I read about some of the controversies surrounding AA's founder and majority shareholder, Dov Charney, I am less surprised by the overt sexual nature of them. Not sure how much of the controversies surrounding Dov Charney is actually true, but I have to admit that my view of this company, which I admire for keeping its manufacturing at home in America, has changed a tad. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I love your blog and will always read it no matter what.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response to my concerns (anonymous, above). I think your openness and willingness to discuss this is great. For the record: I love your pictures of the girl in the American Apparel skirt and bustier - gorgeous girl, cute clothes, lovely images, and I actually like so many AA clothes.
I do, however, find AA advertising sleazy and repellent and so have made a decision never to buy their products as a personal (and no doubt ineffective) protest. You know what they say, 'think global, act local'. Middle-aged men exploiting young girls. It's as old as time.

Cecylia said...

I love the boots! So warm, cozy and chic!