PRPS Women's Collection

Have you ever seen improperly broken in jeans? The kind that make the wearer look like a wannabe skater/punk/daredevil? Surely they were customized with a pair of scissors, not the patient decay of time. If you've ever wanted the authentic I-live-in-these-jeans bedraggled look, PRPS is the way to go. Designer Donwan Harrell cites his influences as living abroad, his vintage car collection (which I covet) and hanging out at a drag racing strip. He has since imaged some great looking men's jeans and now takes his careful eye to women's wear. This fall the first PRPS womens collection will make you look like Daisy Duke's long lost, no nonesense rocker cousin. Oil stains and shreads across the thigh are a few of the fierce details that adorn the girls: Dart (skinny leg), Firebird (slim straight leg) and Daytona (one hot slim bootcut). They're nice to look at but their interiors are just as great. The pockets are lined in camoflage fabric and the zipper in detailed in purple (purple!).

Rocker jeans aren't all PRPS has to offer for fall. A Jennifer Herrema-esque fur vest and a must have bomber jacket are tough yet sexy. And if a plaid button down won't make you look like a girl who works on her vintage car herself, nothing will.

www.prpsgoods.com

A La Mode: Chart Toppers

Nylon: "Chart Toppers", November 2004

Photographer: Sasha Eisenman

Model: Iris Palmer

Stylist: Jennifer Herrema

Location: Amoeba Records

PS

I've done some editing. My biggest re-write is here. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think.

Bohemian, Gothic, Ornithological, Eccentric, Gypsy

My style can vary day to day but I have two recurring themes, summer time hippie and winter in black and grey. Since global warming has brought me more rain than snow my fashion sense is a little bewildered. Each day I go for my typical blacks and grays but when I see the sun and rain I throw on a paisley scarf and wear cobalt converses because I feel too subdued.

In November I was gearing up for snow. I'd recently bought a tape of Adore by the Smashing Pumpkins and knew from the start that it would be my winter soundtrack. In the bleakness of a white sky and dark, geometric trees, Billy Corgan's pleading tone would be melancholy and romantic. I listen to the record everyday but its only snowed heavily once. I usually have Fiona Apple and the Stills on repeat now but I've barely listened to them. The lack of typical winter weather has left me a bit confused about what I feel like wearing day to day. I referred back to the December/January issue of Nylon where Luke Crisell described Mary-Kate Olsen as a bohemian-Gothic-ornithological-eccentric-gypsy. To me this is a combo of my style moods so I simply put my summer and winter pieces together and came out like Kurt Cobain with a dollop of Janis Joplin. My mocasins may even make an appearance....

Icon: Karen O

One fateful night I discovered Suberteranean on MTV. Little did I know the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would turn my world of music on its head. I was a skateboarding, moshing munchkin who wanted to be punk, but in less than three minutes I saw something different in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Yes, their music harbors the ferocity of punk but Nick Zinner, fantastic guitarist that he is, incorporates a certain funk. It was a foreign kind of rock to my young ears. On a notepad I scribbled 'Yeah Yeah Yeah's-Date With the Night,' as well as 'PJ Harvey,' so I wouldn't forget how an incredible television show on such a trendy channel had changed my life.

When I was twelve years old I asked my dad to take me to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Sadly, plans for that fell through but I was still enamored with Karen O. Sometimes she looked like she let a kindergarden class fingerpaint her clothes and wore them like they were made for the stage. (I later learned that much of her on stage threads were the work of Christian Joy, I'll cover her in another post.)Her ripped tights and tight, tapered leg pants (amongst the era of the bootcut) held their own during her on stage acrobatics. This resulted in her looking like a superhero. At a performace on David Letterman she moved like a marionette or as if she was transfixed on vital points of the universe. Through the years I've continued to regard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as one of the best and Karen O still reigns as an icon in my mind.