xuly bët: n someone who breaks through appearances
fur, latex, bling bling, plaid, sequins, denim, velvet, obama. enter stage left xuly bët by mali's lamine badian kouyaté. no pretty little girl sitting in a corner blending in with the wall paper-type stuff here - the xuly bët girl is distinctly of the edgy made-you-look-twice, OMG-she's-wearing-VELVET! variety. in four words? street style meets runway.
some highlights:
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- the obama dress:
because obama is the new cool. period. and because everybody and their mama wore obama tees, almost went into cardiac arrest manically screaming "YES WE CAN!!!", and because if we could do it all again, we would. (p.s. does the dress say "this is not a machine"?)o o o
- "ghana must go" is the new plaid:
...and here's how to do it, mr. jacobs. yes, we called you out. mr. bet, thank you for the funky, fresh interpretation and bumping louis vuitton's obnoxious version out of our cerebrums.o o o
- seeing red...and black:
lots of red and black in this collection, which we've also noticed in other shows (hello diane von furstenberg). apparently, red thread is to xuly bët as red soles are to christian louboutin...which explains a lot.
- a closer look at the accessories:
we're digging the brooch (way to keep africa kinda sorta close to your heart) and the ankara clutch. subtle nods to africa are the new ankara. we think.
- favorite piece:
looks like it has no business being in this collection. and that's precisely why we love it.
o o o
closing remarks: okay, so we're mostly girly girls and there's nothing "in-your-face" about us. simply put, xuly bët isn't our cup of tea. that said, we respect his artistic vision and we're positive there are many, many people out there for whom this collection will strike a chord. sadly, those people will have to excuse us as we're just not "hip" or "fun" or "cool" enough. we'd rather wear chiffon.
xo
