Vice Style

2011 saw a dude tattooed like a skeleton break into high fashion, VICE went to London Fashion Week on acid, and to the Blonds presentation, which made us feel like we were on acid. Here are a few of the best and worst things that happened fashion-wise in 2011.

DAPHNE GUINNESS



2011 marked the year I completely lost my ability to even slightly appreciate this woman. She’s essentially the high fashion equivalent of Paris Hilton, an heiress who is famous for little more than who she knows and what she wears. The skunk hair, the McQueen, the Pugh, the big shoulders, the angular silhouettes… it had some appeal for a while. She has money, she has access to amazing clothing, and considers herself an artist, but she also says asinine shit like, "I’ll eat when I’m dead," and reportedly lives off Red Bull and Ensure. For someone who bitches about the blandness of modern fashion, she is far from subversive. She’s got a M.A.C campaign and dressed the windows of Barneys. Yeah, go ahead and paint your lips with nail polish, it’s not as if the fumes can do any more harm to your delusional "artist" brain.

CHRISTIANA KEY


Unless you live in Brooklyn or are a fan of the Sacred Bones roster of artists, you probably don't know who Christiana Key is, but I really don't care. She's the violin player for Cult of Youth and also Zola Jesus. She'll sport the garb of a pagan Victorian child by day and a Native American breast plate with leather hot pants by night. Hedonistic dressing is an art for Christiana and blush I did when we showed up wearing matching black full-bodied bustier catsuits to the Crass show—who the fuck wears that to a Crass show?—because it was the first and probably last time anyone has ever shown up in an outfit matching hers. She shows you don't have to have the resources that being an heiress provides to dress far better than one, although a day job at Beacons Closet doesn't hurt.

PAMELA LOVE'S CFDA AWARD

So she was a runner-up and I think she got robbed, but a $100,000 prize going to a tiny company that produces nearly its entire line in-house is pretty fucking awesome. Plus, we like to cheer on our locals—we followed her during the competition and were there for all the preparations for her fall presentation. However, Love is the only designer in what may be the history of New York Fashion Week who made Anna Wintour laugh, so that probably tells us something.

GUY FIERI TAKES ON JEWELRY

What else can be said that he hasn’t said already?

COURT JEANS

The best high-waisted ass-complimenting black skinny jeans you will ever wear. 

JEFFREY CAMPBELL SHOES

If I see one Brooklyn girl tottering around in Litas in 2012 I might cry. Never have I seen such an atrocious shoe become so over-exposed. After being produced in every color and fabric and print combo possible, I think they are finally ready to retire. Of course there already is another Campbell ready to replace it and become the new ubiquitous shoe of the year, the Tardy, however, these I don’t mind. Frankly, I’m wondering what took Jeffrey Campbell and everyone else—you too, Rachel Comey—so long to knock off the Chloe Docs from a few years ago. I hate Jeffrey Campbells because they are everywhere. BUT, they are everywhere because they are affordable, often pretty cute, and as far as knock-offs go, less embarrassing and made better than Steve Maddens. I feel dirty when I wear them, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop.
 

BEVERLY HAMES

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