Bon Vivants: Positions Available This Very Moment

24Sep09

“Bon Vivants: 11 Stories and Habits of Highly Effective BVs.”

Written by a well-published and widely read Bon Vivant author. Me.

#1  ”Join the bon-vivant!  You can too! It’s never about pedigree, and always about wit, drama, intrigue, good and stylish outfits and bohemian silliness…”

(and taking the summer off from blogging!)

We admit it.  We were more taken by Bon Vivant Country weekends than blogging…but we’re back.  

Here’s the first story.  Sweaty summer kids, we were invited one particular weekend by our country gentleman friend, John Favreau, to his Little Lake in Warren, Connecticut, where “How to Join the Bon Vivant Life” was encapsulated at every turn.   little marvin and I donned our best wigs, packed some BBQ chicken wings and Gatorade and set on our journey.   Above is tall little marvin on the right in the conked long straight wig and you can guess little me from the coiffed frizz, proudly rockin the hair of my people. Thankfully, the right white coif is de riguer for the country set!      

Tumbling stylishly off the train, and strutting over runway-style in the bright sunshine to John, who picked us up in his white convertible Mercedes, we hopped in and drove sportily across the rolling hillettes, directly into the pedigreed land of Connecticut estates. (hold on to those chicken wings and wigs Kidz!) 

Pointing out the estates of the rich and powerful, John said sportily, as an aside, that you don’t necessarily need good genes or a pedigree to hang with the “Manor born.” John’s own Vanity Fair-worthy story of Philadelphia society in the 80’s got us thinking if this were true.  In my own home town of Brotherly Love, John played house-boy host to this century’s most notable Bon Vivants from Nancy Brewster Grace, Henry McIlhenny to Lady Sarah Churchill, to Hope Montgomery Scott, the woman who inspired the Oscar-winning film, The Philadelphia Story and whom Vanity Fair once called “the unofficial queen of Philadelphia’s WASP oligarchy.”  John traveled the world with notable Salonist and photographer of the whole scene, Gloria Bragiotti Etting.  I recalled my favorite W. Somerset Maugham quote, ” It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”

Could it be that anybody can charm the charmed society?  Armed only with grand vision, a sense of generosity about oneself and others and seeking the best of the best?  I was inspired to explore the subject.  I am neither a Self-Help Author or Fashion Journalist but these Eleven Stories, Quotes, Anecdotes and Habits from Eleven Real Bon Vivants, from Dame Vivienne Westwood to Francine du Plessix Gray, can set you on your path to better living!

#2  Wake People up like Showy, Strutting Roosters!

We’ve arrived! Are you not happy?  Be and Welcome showy guests such as Pamela Anderson, Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler and fun is immediately assured.  John does. He routinely hosts guests ranging a house full of photo shoot producers and models from Gradient magazine to a lively, costumed crowd at a pirate themed party attended by neighbors including Richard and John of Lambertson & Truex and Privet, their haute shop; trend spotter and paper-doll designer, David Wolfe: Author, Amanda Hallay and Painter, Pierre Hale and of course…us.

#3 “Survival of The Fittest! Nature and Society eats whatever is boring, injured, useless or dumb.” so says John.

John Favreau is a most elegant country gentleman, one who owns lots of bucolic land, cans his own home-made jam and can be equally consumed with the foxes on Wall Street or the foxes attempting to get into his home-made chicken roost.  Clearly you either eat or get eaten, and the facts of life are somehow more raw when they float just beneath a postcard pretty scene.  Nature’s thorns and thistles of life are abundant and we have the choice to corral our survival tendencies into Fear or equal ourselves to elements of Nature and moment to moment seek how to live the good life by being useful.

The Ultimate Bon Vivant is Nature herself, laughing at our Sisyphean tasks within her wilds, such as my task to be fascinated with Bon Vivants, perhaps as dumb to Nature as Fitzcarraldo’s Opera House in the Amazon and even the making of such as recently described in Werner Herzog’s obscene jungle love in Conquest of the Useless.

I pondered on this given my reading for the trip, Black Elk, The Sacred Ways of A Lakota, on the simple, multi-universe lives of Black Elk and his channupa pipe. Part of my attempt to try to be all Thoreau-like in the country hence, resulting in my best Man vs. Nature BV habit advice which is to Join The Cult of The Appreciative No Matter What or Where You Are and:

#4  When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

#5  Give Good Story.  ”The ability to be a raconteur is key,” says John.

Good Stories told by fine Dandies. Purrrr.  Everyone knows I love Dandies. Dandies are prime Bon Vivants and they notably have a story at the ready for everything. “Oh, this…?…” or “You’ll never guess what happened on my way to…”  Next to my blogger, San Francisan love, Mr. Peacock, (picture above) whence comes John.  His creature comforts all have fascinating stories behind them, ranging from his custom designed crocodile bikers bag to the huge sea turtle shell in his living room that was caught off the coast of Cuba by his Grandfather. Even little marvin and I got in the persuasive story act, trying to coo and comfort John’s caged and scared feral cats housed in his barn, where they were  being “encultured”,  ie: tamed to stay put and catch mice. (We told them about the rose of The Little Prince, the steady diet of plump mouses and John’s dandy hospitality. )

 

Love and the stories we tell each other do create intricate weavings of relationship! Clearly, it’s far better to be the storyteller.   

Being a dandy  is a good, harmless and enriching storytelling habit for anyone, here are 3 tips to get started:

• Be a handsome, well-groomed, gallant or flamboyant person
• Be obsessive about refined language, facts and obscure, wearying hobbies (especially those requiring lads, Dads or gladhands to assist)
• Be a self-made person, live a magnified style of life regardless of background

Aha! That’s so me.  I add only one perfect complimentary diamond-like habit to dandyism…an unmitigated lack of pretension.

 #6    Lose The Youth.  Hang with Elders, the wise and cultured.  

Spending leisurely time with older creative people topped by white frothy hair was another Little Lake theme (thank God we were properly topped!) Connecticut hamlets have borne famous artists and characters such as Katherine Hepburn, Bill Blass and Harriet Beecher Stowe.  The greenish hills and curvy streams wind around Warren properties hiding iconic treasures such as author, Philip Roth, who lives next door, Denis and Ann Leary up the road who are pals, How’d You Get So Rich?..Joan Rivers who cackles just around the hill and the Kissingers, who are always helicoptering in and out.

Warren characters and the interweaving of our lives were in my thoughts all weekend. Even my “elders” and their connections to this Land made me ponder lineage, personal and public history. My Dad was a Connecticut boy, my mother grew up next door to Philip Roth in Newark and I’ve designed runway jewelry for several collections of the legendary Bill Blass. Just around the corner from John, lives a woman who has always inspired me as an artist among the bon vivants,Francine du Plessix Gray.  Given that both John and my design partner Kelly Lebwith have both enjoyed her company and rhubarb pies I have named her a Bon Vivant of Warren and I love her quote. (of course, John makes his own home-grown rhubarb pies, thank you!)

#7 Claim intriguing genes! 

“My mother enjoyed claiming direct descent from Genghis Khan,” which gave her “…both the aristocratic pedigree and the freedom to be a barbarian.” said Francine du Plessix Gray.                

My Good Bon Vivant Story Number 2: I grew up in a simple, suburban bedroom community in South New Jersey.  It does not get more plebian than that.  ”Alex”, a good male friend was a tall, striking young man who from the 6th grade knew he was destined to be a high society coutourier and decorator. He frequently claimed he was actually from the tony Main Line of Philadelphia versus the flatlands of SJ and was fathered and mothered by vague, world traveling parents.  As they never were around his small trailer size home, who could argue?  Although no one quite believed him, that boy went on to work for a top European couturier, became a designer dressing a certain First Lady, collects rare antiques and designs the homes of A-list celebrities. No names shall be mentioned, but clearly he is an example that the best way to predict the future is to imagine it.Francine of good encultured genes made her way in the world similarly to Philip Roth, spilling all the secrets of her cafe society parents and soap opera background into her book “Them.” Her mother, Tatiana’s story is complete drama, at 19 she was a refugee from Russia, her love affair with poet Vladimir Mayakovsky resulted in his suicide after she left and her marriage to high society bon vivant Bertrand du Plessix, left her a widow when he died right after Francine’s birth. Again a refugee, her mother fled occupied France to New York with Francine and Alexander Liberman, whom she married in 1942. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Alex was a noted artist and later the longtime editorial director of Vogue magazine and then of Condé Nast Publications. The Libermans were pure party people in media,art and fashion circles.  His BV advice was to preserve one’s personal life, to identify one’s instinct, and never to carry packages for people. Francine came to Connecticut when she married the painter Cleve Gray.  Content to keep the drama of suffering to her biographies of the Marquis de Sade and Simone Weil, as the New York Times said, she turned her back on the high life and instead made some great pies.                                                                                                                                

    #8 ” Travel the world and pack well with the right jeans, luggage or trunks”, says Me.

The Third BV Story. While studying architecture and design in Paris one summer with Parsons, at the Louvre’s Musee de les Arts Decoratif, I was taught that furniture was invented from trunks which stored a family’s world possessions.  As a family became more encultured, trunks became chests, armoires, beds and tables. Likewise, John knows the value of being Trunk Savvy.  His property grows tree trunks galore and he enacts a Man vs. Nature scenario for errant beavers chewing his tree trunks. Vilbrequin swim trunks are de-riguer for his easy Jude Law-in-Como dives into his own lake filled with bass, catfish, frogs and snapping turtles and the man has more Goyard trunks than Barney’s. Travel and Pack Well Indeed.                 

“Living proof that charm and experience will always matter more than Money”, thus ran the headline of David Patrick Columbia’s piece for Quest magazine on Philadelphia socialite Gloria Etting.

John Favreau earned his pedigree as a cook, party planner, entertainer and travel companion for art-world esthetes, Gloria Braggiotti Etting and her artist husband Emlen. He cut his teeth as Nancy Brewster-Grace’s house boy and then went on to plan parties and travel with Gloria.  Nancy entertained Red Grooms, Henry Mcilhenney, his sister Bonnie Winterstein, Peggy and George Cheston, artists, architects, designers and literary types (Sir Stephen Spender, Arthur Clarke, Robert Venturi, etc.)  Gloria’s Italian-Boston theatrical family background featured growing up with the Cushing sisters who became Babe Paley, Betsey Roosevelt and Minnie Astor by way of marriage, and her fashion editor position at The New York Post were only part of her pedigree as per The Philadelphia Museum of Art as the consumate salon hostess. Gloria’s bohemian and aristocratic past made her noted for antics like putting anatomically correct ancient Etruscan statuettes on the dining table for shock and conversation value.  (John notes, ” On the same vein,it was Hope Scott who had a medieval chastity belt, which used to make Walter Annenberg laugh riotously!!)

She voraciously traveled and photographed her friends, Henry Mcllhenny, Claudette Colbert, Truman Capote, Perry Rathbone, Isamu Noguchi, Isek Dineson, Jacques Tati, Tennessee Williams, Buckminster Fuller, Alexander Calder, Elizabeth Taylor, George Balanchine, Salvatore Dali and Gala, Picasso, Jackie O, Maxime de la Falaise and Martha Graham. The Philadelphia press wrote of Gloria after her passing, that she was one “who gathered friends with the kind of passion others have for collecting stamps, art or butterflies.”

John. Write this book!

#9  Utilize costumes!

 

 

 

 “Don’t come as you are, but as you want to be,”proclaims famed Philadelphia jeweler, party thrower, Henri David.

The Other Philadelphia Story #4. On the other side of the tracks in Philadelphia, while the pedigreed enjoyed antiquity porn, my mother was attending her friend, gay jeweler,Henri David’s annual Halloween parties, which have drawn people from every strata and fauna of society for over 30 years.  John relates that he once went to one of Henri David’s parties as a highway, all in black with a white stripe down the middle and matchbox cars sewn up and down the sides of the road, and a strategically placed Yield sign.

In honor of John’s costume and crossing the tracks and highways of social boundaries, the rest of these tips are shallowly slave to how mere fashion and affectations can deliver one to the right circles.      

#10  ”Own, Display and Wear Tribal Symbols Brightly and Irreverently…never, ever wear them in tribes though,” says Me,  “Pick a country or street club trademark…like Plaids, Monograms or Gang Bandanas…just rock it smartly and incessantly!”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

little marvin, Jade and John sartorially Cavort in Connecticut

My room at John’s was the perfect mix of “Tribal Symbols.” Both the Call of the Wild and the Call of the Cultured surrounded me, from the lush sand colored kangaroo skin bedspread to the Pierre Hale hand-painted ceiling border with Nina Simone lyrics running the circumference…”It’s a new dawn, It’s a new day. It’s a new life, for me, And I’m feeling good.”

On an elegant side table was a signed copy of Gloria’s sleek little photography book of high society and artists from the 1970 and 80’s on top of a signed copy of a huge coffee table book for the color and history addicted fashion slaves called “Tartan, Romancing The Plaid.”  

Tartans, whale print pants and feather boas, Medieval chastity belts and flowing fine wine …tribes, tribal symbols and people are always best mixed. 

If you want expert advice on how to wear tartan, see Mr. Peacock’s recent post here.

They say the word “tartan” comes from the French word, “tirer” translating “to pull”, but I hear the etymology of tartan in the word “tantra” in Sanskrit, which means “to weave.” Most people associate the word tantra just with sexual practices, in which weaving certainly is required, however it actually refers to a universal weaving of desire, energies, elements and people.  Perhaps this is a key root to the symbolism of tartan and its visual tribal metaphor for “belonging” whether it is society or a rejection of society.  It always reads passion and a rich expression.

Jeffrey Banks, the author of Tartan, Romancing The Plaid, writes, ”But tartan is more than a design, it is a sign; and while it signifies kinship (real or imagined), country, and celebration of the Scots, its subtext is dignity, distinctiveness and a sense of belonging- qualities that possess universal appeal.”   

Philadelphia Number Story #5.  Reading Jeffrey’s book, I recalled my own first odd meeting of plaid and world views at my Jewish father’s children’s clothing store, where he would outfit the Catholic parochial school children in their tartan uniforms. I watched from afar in my chic Petit Bateau T and Dittos hipster jeans while the Catholic children had the odd mixed face of trying to look excited about their new unsightly uniform while pain and confusion darted beneath their eyes.  I suppose this memory did much to cement my ideas of personal style and the passion for the bon vivant life.

#10  When it Rains, it Pours! When life gets grey, boring and stale, the bon vivants invent!  

The tartan book’s forward is by Rose Marie Bravo, who saw gold in the plaid lining of another of my favorite timeless icons of The Bon Vivant, trench coats and raincoats when she re-mastered the dowdy English brand, Burberry.  From this famous plaid conquering the world, the expression,“Doing a Burberry”, stands for turning and re-birthing the traditional into a trend and icon status.

Years ago, John lent me another fascinating book, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. Did you know that umbrellas were invented by Louis XVI, whose Midas-focused eyes were in hot pursuit of the 24-7 bon vivant life and as a result gave us full-length mirrors, cafe lighting, champagne and gourmet cuisine?

Gaultier and Rhianna are two modern icons who can also suddenly wake you up with plaid and unexpected style and vision.

                                                            

# 11 “Re: The Total Look? Claim one color for hair and body wear like icons, Westwood, Shiaparelli, Christo or Vreeland or wear a tribal symbol like a bandana…all the damn time.” 

                                                                                 Dame Vivienne Westwood gives good arrivals and is one of the best examples of a Bon Vivant.  Westwood orange follows Vreeland red follows Shiparelli pink. Her husband, Andreas Kronthaler follows gang bandanas, follows Malcolm McLaren and they all follow tribal mash-ups to supreme effect.

#11 A.  Reference Nature and Eastern Mysticism Often.                            

Madonna, The Beatles, Rasputin, Marquis de Sade, Mata Hari, James Bond, Sarah Palin, Madame Blavatsky, all Bon Vivant seducers whose sultry mix of the sacred and profane references hit the spot.  Try these Bon Vivant requirements on for size courtesy of the above characters, a quirky historic account of the mysterious Madame Blavatsky, Robert Greene’s book, The Art of Seduction and my own inventions.

                                                                                                                     

• Escape, claim or disdain your royal, exotic or mundane roots
• Walk with Royal carriage or at least employ car service
• Use make-up or facial expressions to make Eyes like Helena Blavatsky, who had ” large, luminous blue eyes whose strange spiritual expression fascinated all who came within her influence”
• Reference immortal experience to create an age uncertain 
• Utter prophetic and seductive visions at uncanny times
• Gather a curious mixed set of literary and artistic friends, Bohemians, visionaries, cranks and an occasional practical thinker from Wall street or the colleges
• Be a conversationalist of rare magnetic power  
• Like Helena, be “an accomplished linguist, as most Russians are, “she spoke French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Hindostanee and several Arabic dialects with east and fluency”
• Display a deep knowledge of the ancient and modern literature and philosophy of many lands
• Enjoy robust dinners washed down by good wine
• Cultivate odd, disarming wee habits, so as to humanize and have others feel superior over you, such as feigned incongruous insecurities or smoking Turkish cigarettes of a peculiar and excellent quality
• Never be a Bore

Upon being myself, a self-proclaimed well-known Author, I am a student of Mysteries, Tibetan Tantric Black Hat Sect Feng Shui and Eastern Sciences since the tender age of 16, I offer my spiritual bon mots, enthusiastic wine drinking and enjoyment of fine foods to the Hosts and Hostesses of the World.  As proof of my powers, I offer this image of Neith, Egyptian Goddess of Weaving, Water and War. It’s so very Me…right?

Here is the reading from the I Ching, The Chinese Book of Changes, I pulled before we set sail for Little Lake…it will astonish and seduce you to its ancient Nature-based wisdom.

Today in I Ching Astrology, the Lake trigram rules the roost. Sometimes known as the Lake, this Star is called the 7 Lake Star and is owned by the fun loving and courteous Youngest Daughter in the I Ching family. Today her chi will pervade all the Stars differently during this 8 Mountain month.                                                                                             

One of the best activities today is to chill out! Also to reflect. Take time to meditate quietly about the week ahead for you. No real action, simply enjoy and take it easy.

This Star also belongs to the west. Here when the image of sunset comes into play it can mean to party, be with friends and family and let your hair down. The youngest daughter has few responsibilities in the family and she knows how to entertain. (from Jon Sandifer’s blog  )

Kind of apt that this actually rules September 2009 as well.

…and finally, the last words on The Bon Vivant Life, Nature, the Sunset of Summer Weekends, and The Curious Sisyphan task of Blogging?  Go Nina Simone…with the best advice yet.

Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Reeds driftin on by you know how I feel

(refrain:)
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good

Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom in the tree you know how I feel

(refrain)

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you know
Butterflies all havin’ fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done
That’s what I mean

And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me

Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: LIVES, THE TOP 11   |  2 Comments
Tags: Alexander Liberman, Amanda Hallay, Andreas Kronthaler, Anne Leary, Babe Paley, Betsey Roosevelt, Bill Blass, Black Elk, Bon Vivant, bon vivants, Bond, Burberry, Claudette Colbert, Cleve Gray, Conquest of the Useless, Cushing sisters, dandies, David Patrick Columbia, Denis Leary, Egyptian Goddess, famous bon vivants, Francine du Plessix Gray, George Balanchine, Gloria Etting, Henri David, Henry McIlhenny, Hope Scott, how to be a bon vivant, How'd You Get So Rich, Isek Dineson, James Bond, Jeffrey Banks, Joan Rivers, John Favreau, JOhn Paul Gaultier, Katherine Hepburn, Kelly Lebwith, Lady Scott Churchill, Little Marvin, Madame Blavatsky, Madonna, Malcolm McClaren, Martha Graham, Mata hari, Maxime de la Falaise, Minnie Astor, Mr. Peacock, musee de les arts decoratif, Nancy Brewster Grace, Neith, NYC country weekends, on golden pond, Pamela Andreson, Philadelphia society, Philip Roth, Pierre Hale, Rasputin, Rhianna, Robert Greene, Rosemarie Bravo, seducers, The Art of Seduction, The Beatles, The Philadelphia Story, The Sex Pistols, Them, Vivienne Westwood, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Warren Connecticut, Werner Herzog

Peeking Behind The Diva Curtain

30Jun09

 

Diva the movie

Mandatory accessories behind every Diva are tons of devoted fans or even one lone obsessive soul.  For me, the metaphor for Diva worship is the cult 80’s film of the same name directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, about a young man who is obsessed with a stunningly beautiful opera singer played by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez.  The Diva never allows her performances recorded yet this young postal worker secretly and illegally tape records her performance one night and steals a gown from her dressing room. 

Diva, Paris evening

Against an operatic Vladimir Cosma score including Sentimental Walk and the aria from La Wally the film speeds and pines with racy 80’s music and Zen droning chimes, it is a kooky case of who is possessed by whom. Mistakenly switched tapes puts the young postal worker in the midst of a crime caper which results in all manner of characters, obscure and wonderful environments like a high-style labyrinth (in more ways than one) behind the city stage of Paris.  The Diva-obsessed postman himself lives in a huge loft with fantasy car murals, neon and abandoned luxury car wrecks evocative of the worlds just beneath our surface.

The Postman's Loft

Movie-like Serendipity, Gown-Flying Mayhem and feeling like you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole can often be just another evening in NYC. Specifically in that department, every year the New York City Opera’s City Opera Thrift Shop fundraising event, Divas Shop for Opera, feels like some kind of a movie caper.  From Fred of the B52’s to Pat Field to crowds of tranvestites and club kids mixing with socialites…put several 100 varied people in a room with low prices and high-end thrift shopping to benefit the Opera’s costume budget via it’s thrift store, which Vogue magazine calls “The highest quality thrift shop in New York,” …and well…suddenly everyone is a Diva.

This year’s event reminded me of the movie Diva.  Usually held in a vast loft space, this year it was 2 floors of crowds, chaos and thrills.  We took pictures of the most interesting people and upon digging deeper found truly remarkable individuals that are Divas in their own Worlds.

(Listening to the music from Diva, while writing this post, I recalled with mixed tears and smiles my 1980’s Desperately Seeking Susan inspired thrifting capers with my boyfriend, Jose, he in a satin dressing gown and huge Dutch wooden shoes, both of us taking turns on the thrift-purchased megaphone, careening down the streets of Philadelphia, intoxicated with Love and the giddiness of thrifting.)

Austin Scarlett, Lori Sutherland

Lori Sutherland is The Diva of the event.  Behind the shop’s Director, Eric Hagmueller is the gorgeous Dame Lori and behind Lori is a couture-savvy stylist who “Soul-Styles” her clients with expertise hovering neatly between her Buddhist Chaplain studies and her studies of Pleasure with world experts such as Mama Gena.  Austin Scarlett is a designer who got his start with Project Runway, (I had a very pre-Project Runway early street style picture of him, taken by Time-Out magazine, with his huge white fur hat and round hat box purse to inspire me as it was pasted to the inside of my closet for years).   A Boy Who Lives Beyond.  

Austin Scarlett at Young Fellows

Outside we found this adorable couple.  Very Non-Diva-like they simply said what they did with no flourishes which made them even more impressive.

Ted Lee and E.V.Day

E.V.Day told me she is doing an installation with opera costumes for the Opera, but when you google this installation artist represented by Deitch Projects, you realize she is not just an exhibition designer but a well-established artist collected by museums such as the Whitney with pieces like this next image.  It reminds me of a white Jackson Pollack action painting in 3D. (Bride Fight 2006)

E.V.Day

Here is the image from the article in New York Times on E.V. Day’s installation using vintage costumes (and the part about the underwear is fascinating!)

And E.V.’s boyfriend/husband/friend Ted Lee, who humbly told me he was a “cookbook writer” just happens to be one half of the Southern cooking duo, The Lee Brothers.

The Lee Brothers, cookbook authors and wine experts

Also there was Amy Fine Collins, who is best known as the muse to Geoffrey Beene and Ralph Rucci.  The fact that she is a Vanity Fair magazine writer and style icon who lives in my dream home in NYC makes her even more lovable.  She has supported the NYC Opera for years.

Amy Fine Collins

A collector of fashion-pedigree art and furnishings, she pens her work at the desk once belonging to Hugh Hefner and furthermore has an elephantine Rolodex which is one of my enduring loves for it’s design and simple function.

Amy Fine Collins writes at Hugh Hefner's desk

(Amy Fine Collins in Peak of Chic by way of Elle Decor)

We caught leith ter meulen, (no caps requested) CEO and President  of Landair Project Resources, managing some of the most noteworthy arts organization, municipal and corporate real estate projects in the city, as she emerged with her findings.  She was elegant, funny and had to take two cabs home. 

 

 

Christine Traina

 

 

Christine Traina, VP, Commercial Sales and Leasing with The Grossberg-Sroka Group-Prudential Douglas Elliman RE, was thrilled most about her Grandmother’s vintage diamante pin.  The quilted coat from Donna Karan was stellar, the stitches forming designs like a quilt from the 1900’s meeting Mondrian.  And the shoes!

Lorry Newhouse,Lauren Bridgeman and Amy Fine Collins

                                                                                         

 

Lauren, who works at the NYC Opera Thrift store

Lorry Newhouse, Michael Bruno

Lorry Newhouse is an Opera supporter stalwart, Lauren works at the store and owns the best profile in NYC.  Lorry is here with Michael Bruno, the expat in Paris who started 1stdibs.com which he describes himself as “eBay for rich people.”  And I would add that it is the epitome of upscale “thrifting”, with experts and items coming from the best European sources.  Reserved for those who pronounce “thrift” and “flea market” as “Marche Aux Puces.”  

Michael Bruno's Paris home

Michael Bruno’s Paris living room is a showcase for thrift decor with its Cubist painting from the 1940s and electric blue furniture from the same era in its original silk, from 1stdibs.com. This image is from the Rizzoli book, Rooms to Inspire by Annie Kelly, photography by Tim Street-Porter.

Ava Kaplan, Clair Watson, Lori Sutherland

And really, this is New York City’s Diva of Vintage Couture. Clair Watson at 1stdibs.com. Clair was instrumental in creating upscale thrift in New York City and as Couture Director for Doyle Auctions she is The Diva.  I love what she calls her design mantra (after Carlos Castenada), “Everything has its beneficial spot.”

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So I have Peeked Behind the Diva Curtain.  Finding the jewel in the dirt, flea market or thrift shop bin opens the immediate experience. Mirrors it Serendipitously. Honoring, firing the imagination with history, it is a travel through Life Operatically. The Larger than Life style of a Diva.  The Art of Watching.  Knowing you are on Life’s Stage being Observed and identifying Who is Observing.  A thrift shop is Enlightening! YOU better be dressed for it!

This still is also from the movie Diva.  Many event photographs by The Kaitlyn Barlow, credits where known, please advise if you took some of these images!  

The City Opera Thrift Store is 222 East 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves. New York City 212.684.5344

written by Jade Dressler

Filed under: FASHION, NEW YORK   |  2 Comments
Tags: 1st dibs, 80's movie Diva, Amy Fine Collins, aria from La Wally, Austin Scarlett, best thrift shop in New York, best thrift shop in NYC, Christine Traina, Clair Watson, Dame Lori, designer muse, Diva, Divas Shop for Opera, E.V. Day, famous movie lofts, Fred B52's, jade dressler, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Kaitlyn Barlow, Landair Project Resources, Lauren Bridgeman, leith ter meulen, lofts in Paris, Lori Sutherland, Lorry Newhouse, Mama Gena, Michael Bruno, movie loft in Paris, New York City Opera, New York City Opera Shop for Opera, Paris flea markets, Paris living spaces, Pat Field, Rooms to Inspire, The Lee Brothers, The movie Diva, Vladimir Cosma, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez

In Love with The Make, Isabel and Ruben Toledo

18Jun09

New York City on the make is a churning pot of all kinds of Mob-Stars and Fame Gamers. The best New York stories happen every minute… when fortune smiles in chance meetings, in a flash hard work for years is rewarded, creative collabs are formed or the hand of Fate puts one suddenly on the map.

For a fashion designer, having the most visible and important woman in the world wear your dress on a major historic occasion just because she loves your work (without any mob influence, horse heads or gratuitous “celeb stylist” posturings)…this a classic New York City lore of “Making It” adding Isabel and Ruben Toledo to the illustrious list that includes Madonna, Ivanka and Gaga, Woody Allen and Warhol, The Dons King, Trump and Corleone, Spike Lee, Jay Z and P. Diddy, DVF, SNL and…Speidi?…and many other twirling wanna-bes who have officially crossed over the tracks.

“Don’t ever think you’ve made it, because it’s all downhill from there,” Toledo joked the other day in the Wall Street Journal, “I made it when I was 8 years old and I made my first garment — how about that? I fell in love with the make.”

This Self-Made original woman was one lithe slice of joy in her simple sleeveless white sheath, upon the opening this week on Tuesday night of the FIT Exhibit,Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out, which runs June 17 through September 26, 2009.

As a jewelry designer in the 1980’s and 90’s my first memory and vision of the Toledos remains Ruben’s sketches of women in Details and other downtown magazines that ran along side images of our jewelry. When I realized he and his wife looked like and were actually the living characters I loved in the drawings and plus…they were living and creating for “The Love of The Make”… I was smitten.  My life has been lived first for creativity and to share and inspire that with others is The Path of Those In Love with The Make.

Kind of perfect then that the dress that puts the Toledos on the map was metaphorically (intentionally?) designed to look like a swath through a bright green Spring meadow, shining with lights and gathered near the heart, worn by a woman who could easily be the President herself.  Michelle too is one-half also of an integral strong and creative partnership, perhaps THE most important in the world right this minute.

Invited to the cocktail party by the FIT costume exhibit co-creators Dr. Valerie Steele and Patricia Mears, I in turn invited one of my co-creators, life-inspirer and new designer, little marvin, to “make” this post as we sparred over which black lace dress in Isabel’s Shadow series was the bomb.  (I loved the one with the red-tie at the neck, he loved the sheer shirtdress.) A Renaissance man, who sleeps head cradled between two biographies, Gandhi and Richard Branson, little marvin embodies both men in his creative world as a producer of non-scripted-scripted programming, writer/personality, designer and humanitarian.  

The spirit of the evening was full of friends and New York’s Fashion Gang Stars including Andre Leon Talley, Cator Sparks, Patrick McDonald, Simon Doonan, Joey Arias, Kim Hastrieter and Bethann Hardison, to name a few.  Interestingly, some noteworthy creative partners were also on the scene (since that is a very Isabel and Ruben theme we must repeat it unceasingly) such as Carmela Spinelli (who was Tim Gunn’s co-creator at Parsons), Lori Sutherland and Eric Hagmueller, who together rock the upcoming (covered here) New York City Opera Divas Shop for Opera (where Isabel and Ruben are co-chairs this year), Philippe Blond (sans David) and Amy Rosi and Peter Rosenthal.

Herewith is a view of the event via the continuance of the sparring that sparked from a combo of 4 glasses of wine, 2 “In Love With The Make” know-it-alls in front of 6 of Isabel’s black lace Shadow collection confections in a room full of infectious Toledo-ness.

Meet little marvin here and see his latest project from Monte Carlo.

Jade: What did you witness tonight at the party that you will always remember?

lm: How graciously Isabel & Ruben received each and every single guest that walked in (myself included)… a perfectly-suited Ruben, passed out post-exhibit on a bench with a bouquet in his tiny, pale grip (very Tim Burton directs “Evita”)… playing “revolving doors” with Andre Leon Talley (sadly, not a sexual position)

As a producer of non-scripted programming, what reality series would you make about Isabel & Ruben?

I’m seeing lots of lemongrass brocade and pop-locking.  So You Think You Can Sew?

The year is 2020 (we survived 2012, thank God and the new-age angels!) What is Isabel Toledo’s legacy? If she never designed Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress, how would our world be the same or different?

If Isabel had never designed M.O.’s inauguration dress, then one might surmise that B.O. had never won the election. The truly important fashion questions then become: Would Aretha have sang at McCain’s swearing in? And would Cindy have allowed A.F. to wear that hat?  I guess what I’m really trying to say is: Thank you Isabel.

Describe your favorite piece in the show and your experience seeing it.

I really loved this simple, yet exquisitely sculpted, gray cashmere trench (which the Toledo’s lawyer, was quick to point out to me, would be available at Barney’s shortly.  Love lawyers!) 

Male fashion legends from Andre Leon Talley to Joey Arias to Simon Doonan were there tonight.  What did you talk to them about?  Who else did you see or talk to?

Sadly, I couldn’t talk much at all what with the constant mouthfuls of tiny, conical hors d’oeuvres.  I did see the “food & wine gay” from Queer Eye and a few Project Runway castoffs which is always fun.  I also saw someone you falsely claimed was Fabio, though I’m pretty sure it was actually Mickey Rourke prepping for his next role as Fabio.

We had a spat over the black lace dresses and so here is your platform. Say.  Why is the sheer shirt dress with black lace more________than the red necktie dresses that I was about to write a brilliant twitter about before you rudely interrupted my creative stream?

First, “brilliant Twitter” = oxymoron.  (See: @iamdiddy, @aplusk & @kirstiealley) Second, said spat had less to do with the relevance of the sheer shirt dress (which was arguably more subversive ) then it did with your inability to fully convince me of the redneck’s genius. (Another oxymoron.)  Anyway, full disclosure: I was really just pissed there were no more tiny, conical hors d’oeuvres left. 

What famous actress do you think would catapult to the next level if she wore a Isabel Toledo dress?  And in which dress?

Only 4 days ago my answer would have been Chastity Bono. See how fickle fashion is?! Definitely Natalie Portman in the “Convertible Lettuce Dress.”  It’s gonna take layers and layers of sheer coral to make that one read “movie star”, you know?

Sometimes I think Isabel’s genius is taking tiny embellishment and blowing it up and out of proportion into a whole dress, for example the tiny wine colored satin mini dresses that are just a big ruffle or the pleated fabric dresses or even Michelle’s simple lime green coat.  Like a path in a field…simple. What do you think about that idea?  It’s not really about the body but instead a simple idea, overblown and exaggerated, that a woman’s self can interact with.

As evidenced by our aforementioned “redneck” spat, I think you’re absolutely correct:  Women do have a tendency to take tiny embellishments and blow them all out of proportion. 

Awwww, SNAP!

grrr, hmmmph, where’s that damn lawyer?  Actually…I’m feelin’ a little PMS, a little way over the Stiller + Meara, Regis + Kelly banter on the Fashion Funster Mobster scene.  Nonetheless, little marvin, I thank you for your astute culinary-infused, sartorially sassy, gender-biased and blithe commentary and let’s do it again next month, same time!

*little marvin is CEO/founder of little marvin/BIG MEDIA, a full-service media company that creates non-scripted programming, web/mobile media and branded entertainment.  he is also a bit of a genius, and infamous for squiring some of the world’s most beautiful people. he didn’t write this.

although…he did tweet this…

@ Isabel Toledo opening party. Michelle’s inauguration dress + Andre Leon Talley in the same room? Gay buttons = officially pushed

follow lm’s twitter feed here.

the aforementioned Jade tweet:

What to wear for a Redneck function? Sheer black lace whispers like spanish windows n a red tie @ the neck??? almodovar suburban knish nicks

follow our twitter feed here.

Note: Twitter is no substitute for God, Career or a Beautiful, glittery evening celebrating venerable New York institutions such as FIT, the dedication of Original Talent and the Toledo style.  See this show…there is more life and fashion and the fame game happening here than in any episode of Project Runway.

Wendy Goodman’s New York magazine coverage of Isabel and Ruben Toledo’s home in Habitually Chic

written by Jade Dressler and little marvin

Filed under: ART, FASHION, LIVES, NEW YORK   |  1 Comment
Tags: Amy Rosi, Andre leon Talley, Carmela Spinelli, cator sparks, Chastity Bono, David Blond, Dr. Valerie Steele, Eric Hagmueller, famous dress, famous NYC designers, fashion exhibit new york city, Fashion From The Inside Out, FIT exhibit Isabel Toledo, FIT fashion exhibit, FIT NYC Michelle Obama, FIT Toledo, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Isabel and Ruben Toledo's home, Isabel Toledo, jade dressler, Joey Arias, Kim Hastrieter, Little Marvin, Lori Sutherland, making it in New York City, Michelle and Barack, Michelle and Barack fashion, Michelle Obama dress designer, Michelle Obama dress exhibit, Michelle Obama fashion, Michelle Obama inauguration dress, Michelle's famous dress, Michelle's green dress, Natalie Portman, NYC Opera Divas Shop for Opera, Patricia Mears, Patrick McDonald, Phiippe Blond, red neck dress, Ruben Toledo, Ruben Toledo drawings, Simon Doonan, Speidi, Spydee, WSJ

NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING DESIGN CREDOS: HOME

12Jun09

Inspired by the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City we put together NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING CREDOS to consider when creating a brilliant interior.  I am joined by Michelle Barge, my partner with a passion for classic decor, a solid Sotheby’s background, and endless examples of Living The Nnnth Degree Life! and together we suggest the ultimate rooms and accessories to surround the furniture that caught my attention and imagination at the show. Her mix of Niceness and Naughtiness is where boring ends… and we begin.

ONE: DO YOU.  Classic advice, but applicable to EVERYTHING!

Here is Us: Me, Jade.

OK, so you can see the “Cute! Anything Goes Mentality” from this pic. My actual criteria?  Furniture or Interiors are the same as people…I seek what inspires desire and honor of the highest qualities of a life well-lived, a sensibility or timelessness that penetrates strangely and whisks you away immediately to the Landscape of Dream or Hmm, To Be Explored Further. It sounds haute and mightily but really…in the end…spontaneous, free and simple is a huge part.

Now. Michelle.

As much as my Mother would like, I don’t wear earrings, I get pedicures but my fingernails are left bare, my standard pieces of jewelry are a stainless steel vintage Rolex and big hair does not look good on me.  I crave refinement and elegance and often my dreams go to an afternoon lazed away at the sleak and swanky Connaught Hotel’s bar in London.  But when I shed the black and am not drinking fabu wines in an English drawing room, the ocean is where I really feel at home.  Surfing and horseback riding, flip-flops, no tweeting and cooking on an open fire on the shore — this is my true lover.  The inspiration from this lifestyle fuels it all.  

and now…here are our NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING CREDOS

TWO: THE HIPPO IN THE ROOM.  ONE STELLAR UNAVOIDABLE PIECE OR EXTREME COLOR CAN MAKE A ROOM.

Jade:

From Boco do Lobo in Portugal (here it is again…unforgettable…) comes the above unavoidable, purple grape, ombre lacquer crystal-shaped credenza for which a double take is necessary. Thankfully not modern or design cred-saturated as sometimes ICFF offerings can be, it stood out in the show like an ungainly girl in a loud purple satin dress, an amusing heirloom piece that would be in a family for years and likely to be woven into its memories and imagination.  The matte golden felt interior with asymetrical shelves continues the mystery like the wardrobe entry into Narnia.

Michelle:

If you really want to go for madness in color and actually live with it, I always turn to Jamie Drake’s madcap style — mix of extreme color but classic lines and arrangements. The words “afraid” are just not in his vocabulary.

Jade:

I spied another credenza from the same company, this time white lacquer with a silly and surreal but well-crafted mish-mash of drawers, pulls and interior drawer fabrics.

Michelle intones:

…And if one were to juxtaposition Sir Drake’s fuschia room with the purple Bilbao-esqed “storage unit” (let’s hope the cabinets are deep and is actually functional) to a room belonging to our muse, Coco Chanel, she would have had this white lacquer cabinet as a complement snuck in a long hall way atopped with huge white camelias. See a very rich video of  Miss Chanel’s apartment here with all her influences, lions, wheat for prosperity, crystal balls and chandeliers with number 5’s throughout. She Did Her. And if Ms. Coco wasn’t having it, Jacques Tati would have used this white credenza in one of his films.

THREE:  INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER.  BLUR THE LINES OF INSIDE AND OUT.

Jade:

Not everyone is considering designs for useful and perhaps mandatory objects for the home that may be commonplace again five years hence from now… and that is exactly what made these two pieces a stand-out. Best of show! I thought so and was pleased to know that Metropolis magazine did as well!  These green-friendly garden necessary objects are from Canadian designers, Jenny Lemieux and Leo Corrales of The Hero Design Lab. (note: the site is very lemon-y) The rainwater collector, at a great price of $525., holds 45 gallons of water.  The collector and the drying rack are recyclable, rust-proof aluminum powder coated and come in many colors.

Michelle! How ya like these curve balls?

Michelle:

I like, but I’ll take my greening up and uptown.  What if every rooftop in NYC and major city were green?  What joy, what breathable air, what wildlife.  Talk about A Great Room. 

FOUR: NO WALLFLOWERS!  MAKE THE WALLS TALK!

Jade:

Talking walls may be five years down the road as well but for now it’s quite cool to contemplate custom designed glass floor and wall tiles and wall paper from Rollout Custom Wallpaper.

Clients have used images of themselves or patterns combining their own iconography or worked with the artisans at the company.  Extending even to giftwrap paper, families can preppily brand themselves like Republics. This is Monogram-beyond, but I’m sure Michelle will find a historic example to inspire rather than repulse. Take the helm, Michelle!

Michelle:

Well, a front door wallpapered with a family monogram or stenciled initials with black trim could be quite chic — especially in an apartment building where you own the floor.  WORD!

And for the modernist, I think the above example above, gold on white in a foyer or leading to a dining area is very smart, especially as it just looks geometric from afar.

And then, on the flip side, one can get one’s island on with tranquil but powerful wallpaper to create a personal retreat in a bathroom.  Case in point:

FIVE: THE GOLD STANDARD… UNSTANDARD.

Goldfingers Twitter and flop into this Chair listening to Goldfrappe in The Bronze Age of Consent.

Jade:

Using gold or classic decor standards in unconventional ways always works.  Tufted stuffed chairs are classic design speak but to do it up in metallic leather…hello!  Back at the ICFF show, two lab coated dandies with clipboards and goggles presided over a Bond-esque booth at the show where this bronze leather chair rotated slowly and mesmerized me as I walked by. A futuristic seedpod, I can saw a whole intergalactic porn scene in this chair unfold in my little mind!  Inxdesign designers, Christian Motta and Duane Dibartolomeo, told me that three upolsterers died while making this impossible custom chair. With the range of futuristic and the over the top offerings from these former film and TV costume and set designers at Inxdesign, one could make a whole lot of mischief within a classic room set-up.

Michelle?  Will intergalactic porn work with my Scalamandre drapes?

Michelle counters:

Agree that the only place for a chair like this is a boudoir and given the choice of fabrics from Inxdesign, I would go for a mint green or pale pink silk tufted chaise as my film backdrop!

SIX: SIMPLE ALWAYS WORKS.  The Tela-tubbie Scandilicious World of Ikea.

Jade:

After my own over-saturation from dramatic furnishings here on the blog…and as I finished my round at the show…the Island Of Ikea felt so simply smart, I didn’t know for five minutes that it was even Ikea! Repentant, puritan-simple strong design felt easy and comforting and I could picture classic pieces like this red chair punctuating a room as a respite from the boudoir activities next door.

Michelle:

Well, in this recession, this is a wise and prudent choice for Ikea. The Scans still own well-made, inexpensive and aesthetically non-combative home furnishings.

Jade:

SEVEN: STREW GLASS BOWLS OF GOODIES LAVISHLY AROUND.

Danish Toppers.

Jade:

I love shiny glass chandeliers, cut Baccarat, antique thrift or $5000 goblets from Murray Moss in cabinets and groupings of big and small glass bowls.  This bowl has presence and personality and I could imagine it…well I couldn’t, I’ll let Michelle do that.

Michelle:

Oh, this bowl is filled with Meyer lemons in the summer or persimmons in the fall on a black matte slate counter-top or it becomes a mini-world of very proper goldfish — in a child-proof and feline-free home, of course.

EIGHT: PLAY WITH EIGHT SCALES OF TEXTURE… TO MAKE INTERIOR MUSIC.

Jade:

Ikea’s crown basket was inspired by Yule Crowns made in Scandia for the holidays. Put some metallic and glitter frosted 1950’s Christmas balls or coconuts or black feather boas in that crown basket, put on the Sinatra and make up some matching dirty martinis!

I found this old watercolor image of a room with intriguing black walls where the above action could unfold. 

NINE:  TO BE IN THE NINES…BE INSPIRED BY A PLACE OR TIME.

Jade:

Do try this at home!

Kenneth Cobonpue’s furniture is found in luxury resorts all over the world, the kind of places where you sink into the furniture and wish you could bring it back with you to have it in your home.

Michelle:

A beach is only as thrilling as the rest of the locale and the room you can repair to after sunning all day. My ultimate room changes via locale.  But the locale where the ultimate room will be — at least for today — is in Cadaques, Costa Brava, Spain.

And for you analytical, Type-A, list-makers…here are the Top NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING DESIGN CREDOS for the Nnnnth Degree Life in one tidy list:

ONE: DO YOU.  Classic advice, but applicable to EVERYTHING!

TWO: THE HIPPO IN THE ROOM.  ONE STELLAR UNAVOIDABLE PIECE CAN MAKE A ROOM.

THREE: INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER.  BLUR THE LINES OF INSIDE AND OUT.

FOUR: NO WALLFLOWERS!  MAKE THE WALLS TALK!

FIVE: USE THE GOLD STANDARD… UNSTANDARD.

SIX: SIMPLE ALWAYS WORKS.

SEVEN: STREW GLASS BOWLS OF GOODIES LAVISHLY AROUND.

EIGHT: PLAY WITH EIGHT SCALES OF TEXTURE…TO MAKE INTERIOR MUSIC.

NINE:  TO BE IN THE NINES…BE INSPIRED BY A PLACE OR TIME.

and I leave you with several of our favorite decor blogs: Peak of Chic, Habitually Chic…and The Selby.

+++

written by Jade Dressler and Michelle Barge

Filed under: HOME, NEW YORK, STYLE, TRENDS   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: accent pieces home, accessories decor, armoire, bathroom decor ideas, beach cadaques, beach furniture, beach house, beach house decor, beach style, bedromm furniture, bedroom ideas, best beach furniture, best interior design ideas, Boco do Lobo, boudoir chaise, boudoir decor, Cadaques, Cadaques Costa Brava Spain, Cadaques style, chanel, Chanel interiors, Chanel's apartment, Chanel's home, city roof decor, coco chanel, Coco Chanel's home, Coco's home, color advice rooms, Connaught bar, Connaught Hotel, cool room designs, credenza, custom wallpaer, design ideas, dining room furniture, eco-friendly outdoor furniture, foyer decor ideas, foyer ideas, furniture home accessories, garden decor ideas, Goldfinger, green city roofs, green garden furniture, green interior design, green living, green roofs, green rooftops, ICFF, Ikea, Inxdesign, island decor, jade dressler, Jamie Drake, Jamie Drake color, Kenneth Cobonpue, living room furniture, London bar, Michelle Barge, Miss Chanel, MOss, New York City green, new york interiors, outdoor raincatchers, Parisian apartments, recycled garden furniture, Rollout Custom Wallpaper, rooftop furniture, room ideas, Scalamandre, simple chair, Spain coast, sustainable outdoor furniture ideas, table top, The Gold Standard, The Hero Design Lab, The Nnnth Degree, top 10 interior design ideas, top design ideas, top design rules, top interior design guidelines, top nine design ideas, wallpaper custom, wallpaper ideas

Your Blog is F@*%^&# Fabulous!

19May09

 

Five Favorites

Blogging is obsessive, egotistical, infanticidal and Oedipal.  One is ever viligante and immersed, tied to the desk like a naughty lover.  Then one day, you get the Bloggers’ Chain Letter and though faintly like the Plea from your Ugandan Uncle for Cash or the latest heaven-sent Money Angel…with this one you are forced to play the game in the name of links, audience share and blogger love.  

So, Lucy Raubertas from Indieperfumes chose me as one of her favorite blogs and I am compelled to return the favor, shout out to her and name 5 blogs myself. And just for kicks, you are required to name 5 addictions too! Jesus, Omyugandancuzzin!, True Confessions! I will deposit el dinero ASAP and spring you from prison!

Digress.  Back to Lucy. I do love her blog, this evocative image of Moroccan women harvesters of Argan oil from indieperfumes will give you the flavor.  Let her take you softly and intelligently from the origins and history of scent to hand-crafted perfumes and small special shops selling scents n’ sensabilities, she is voraciously and sensuously into the meaning behind it all…comme moi.

Ancient texts from several cultures speak about the world beginning with a scent…and so, here begins a glimpse into my favorite blog worlds and my addiction to infinity.  Strap yourself in…it’s a long ride.

MY TOP FIVE BLOGS OF THE MOMENT

 

HOME

The Selby does rich portraits of creative people in their homes, so one craves “lifestyle” vs. “material goods”…always a good thing.  Above is Julia Restoin Roitfeld, daughter of the Carine Roitfeld of the Vogue magazine.  Each person or couple gets a homey, crayoned questionaire at the end, like this one from model Erin Wesson.  (Julia’s is not there, she must be busy)

I love Erin’s home for its islands of collaged images, her collections of odd animal heads, and her, for dancing recently to Augusto Pablo and believing there are aliens all around. Me too on all of the above.

BODY STYLE

This is Clean.  This is Fashion on Warp Speed.  Every image on JAK & JIL sends me. The format and the starkness make it my favorite fashion blog because it’s like a wake-up call.  The way someone with Big Style can instantly wake you up when you spot them on the street or in a crowd.  Attn: Boys and Girls, if you like shoes, you will be in heaven here.

SATURATED PASSION

 

She can be found in a little shaman bearclaw.  She sings on the moors like a little goth rock Heathcliff lover. Goddess or Lady Lavona?  The Lady’s blog, Cabinet of Curiosities is gorgeous and so rich to read.  She is my Muse for Fusing my witchy, herb-loving and city blood self.  The above image from Jennifer Tzar, the photographer who used an antique relic LIKE Lady Lavona’s Black Forest Relics in the shoot, is an example of the aesthetic of “new hipster hippie” that runs through her choices of art to music to coffins.  (Attn: stylist friends…go for the Lady’s relics, she just added new ones!)  Her coverage of the gold biodegradable coffin pod from Ecopod really sent me.  Here is one of her magikal items, a Venus love nest of pink quartz for the heart. (I do love her talismans made from animal claws and teeth, more precious because she sells out all the time!)

CLOSET QUEENS

Globally and unGodly, girls are opening up their closets and blogging about it and it runs the gamut from painful to pretty.  My favorite of all is the reigning two Queens of the News from The My Closet Genre… All hail Queen Michelle and Queen Marie from Kingdom of Style!

These two London girls make my day when they wax on about crafty indie designers (and make a point of following them repeatedly, which is really honorable), make things to wear and model them (see Queen Michelle above, she LOVES her leggings!) and basically can intrigue me on any topic from the mundane to sublime and I can’t even hear their sexy accents!  

ART? OR MUSIC? OR VERYLIFE ITSELF?

 

For number 5 I’ve been agonizing for all of Sunday over which ART blog to share more intimately with everyone. It was a 3-way tie between my Great Loves, Circleculture, where the pink Jaybo Aka Monk image below comes from or who killed bambi, where the image by Miles Aldridge from the top of the blog came from or from a trip into the bizarre and tasty world of Wurzeltod.

The winner?  i listen to everything by Diana Miller, a talent executive with Last Call with Carson Daly.  This post already is so flush with art and the very specific and precious worlds of Circleculture, who killed bambi and wurzeltod are best discovered on one’s own without comment or illustration from me.  Take a look when you have time. But, music, especially as covered in Diana’s blog, is pop-in-able any time and her presentation is a perfect osmosis of the artists’ lives and their music.  The image is Lykke Li, who we covered last year in a summer music post by Felicia Chen.(yes, this is a bleg for Felicia to do a repeat;-)

ALL ABOUT ALTER ME.

And one last plug.  It may be true. I or someone I know is an extra-terrestial stuck in the body of a stripper named Chelsea Nicole and she blogs here…iti phone home about celebrities, boobs and chakras.

AND NOW, MY TOP FIVE ADDICTIVE MOMENTS…

Addictions, I have seen all kinds. I thankfully do not have that kind of personality.  I am only addicted to finding the orgasmic in every moment so I claim that that addiction qualifies.

I am obsessed with the idea of obliterating the Binary Code of the brain and Emotions which I have found immediately results in INFINITY,  So, no holds barred, here five moments in my life where my addiction to infinity occurred and technically will never stop occurring…(oooh, fractal headache here)

THE RED CIRCLE.  

A dare from the neighborhood kids to draw a perfect circle on demand. Ha!  I knew I could do this and distinctly remember calling upon all the forces of nature, Famous Artists Gone-By and The Grand Creator Itself…and I drew a perfect circle…to be echoed in the open mouths of babes surrounding me.  That moment of bravado, summoning The Force and total audience share qualifies as my first Addictive Infinite High.

THE ROCK.  

Ripple effects.  Knowing this at age 11.  Just me, legs tucked up on a huge rock in the country and imagining and feeling a world of contentment as I became the hissing of the grass in front of  me and the breathless rising and falling of the golden insects in the sun together like a volume graph of a song.  I did feel my whole life perfect in that moment and can get there anytime.

THE BICYCLE.  

Riding my bike, in a trance from the sound and feel of the wheels ( thank you Chad Landenberger for this perfect image) and looking up suddenly to a low brick wall (my favorite wall to perch on and contemplate the world) coming up on the left side of the path.  Deciding that the measurement of time to get there was Infinity and it was this: 8 and so I decided to stop time at that moment…and slo-mo’d my way to the wall.  In fact I am still there on that bike.

JOSEPH AND HIS COAT OF MANY COLORS.

A magic man from Portugal that I fell immediately in love with to Bowie’s song “Let’s Dance”, you know the one about the red shoes and yes, I was wearing them, he pulled me to dance and I was done from that moment on. Full of art, drama and mystical coincidences that convinced me Time Had Stopped, we followed each other to Europe and for years we lived in that world between dreamscape and “actuality.” This image from Mario Testino encapsulates for me one “Infinite Moment” and the whole experience of crossing paths with this man.

THE CAR CRASH.  

Years later I was driving on a country road, through an allee, having just fought again with my boyfriend of 8 years and considering that this maybe “the end of the road”, a highway child, cast out into the world…

The last thing I remember was the techno music, the brilliant summer light blinking through the trees…

…and then the huge pink air balloon obliterating my world.   Near Death? I did die, in fact, and hovered for while in that still moment of choice to re-enter this world and clean up the mess.

I emerged with only a scratch, no one was hurt in a total miracle and I felt no impact or heard anything.  This convinced me instantly of the parallel infinite world that rides bigger in the temporary scaffolding of our soap opera days.

The crossroads where our God Perfection Meets Our Corporal Messy Emotions and Obsessions is honestly my addiction.  On the serious and humorous side, it makes for great art.  The structure and crashing of our technological and linear apparatus with our squishy biological bodies is the fascination of us all to differing degrees.  

In this one climaxing incident was joined one of my favorite songs,”Warm Leatherette” from Grace Jones, books such as “Crash”, from J.G. Ballard, and the  movie of the same name by David Cronenberg, Tarantino’s Grindhouse and the lurid fascination of Andy Warhol employed as a police crash scenes photographer.  The American dream cut short on the highway…and very likely a new and better DREAM to emerge.   

How to bi-furcate the binary coding in our emotionally fueled brains and reach infinity? Of course this is how fractals, the pattern of infinity, are made.  This flickering of on and off is the stuff our phenomenal worlds are made of according to physics.  The films of our lives are the running of sequential images of our desires.

“Flux and flurry,Stillness and hypermovement in animated worlds”, by Esther Leslie in the Radical Philosophy magazine sums this up neatly and scholarly.

A blog is thus… a form of animated cartoon.  Those decrying the death crash of journalism via the hand of blogs, Facebook posts and tweets will remain moribund while the flash of imagination of the readers gains speed and illumination through new faster cinematic forms.

As Leslie points out, a snow globe is our world, still or animated by the touch of our thoughts.

…and this pic…is me, a dreaming blogger, FINALLY finished my “Chain letter, Addiction Blog Post” for now…progress…I think I found meaning….(as the yogis say, “not this, not that”)… a thousand points of light and ephemeral snowthingies …feeling much better than when we began! (thank you blogging pen pals…and Lolita for this image and btw she has an amazing blog you should see…

written by Jade Dressler

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The Costume Bleg

05May09

A bleg = blog + beg — i.e., using a blog to beg for information.

Note: I beg here for what inspires YOU…MINIMAL OR MAXIMAL?

GIve me silence, a white snowy expanse, an open infinity pool, a Rothko, a clear blue sky and sea and I am full or overstimulate me to the point of fainting from a cacophony of senses.  Anything in between, forced, half-baked, adopted without reason or humor or complete abandon will annoy me.  

What appears on the red-carpets of Galas and Award events usually falls into the “annoy” category and yet many women do actually understand how to work the formula for good taste and spontaneity.  For New York City’s Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute’s “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” opening last night, May 4th, there were many inspiring muses and I especially appreciate the annoyance of the not so beautiful ones which has inspired this BLEG from me to make events like this more inspiring and legendary.

FIRST…THE WINNER.

THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS…ALEK WEK

BEG ONE.  PLEASE WAKE ME UP!

I beg you…Vogue…is it not time to wake up and shake in your “inside-of-a-codfish-blue” sweater set that influences millions… that maybe actually the street, style bloggers and underground dandies and performers have much more influence on fashion than models?  If last year’s Superheroes exhibit left me with my head shaking the theme alone of this event is already making me quiver to see the inside of the museum. 

The official wording of exhibition says it will examine “the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty and will focus on iconic fashion models of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras.”  

HO-HUM.

“We are trying to sell magazines today kidz.”

 

OK, I take off my “annoyed” turban to comment upon Kate.  The Moss, here dressed by her co-host Marc Jacobs in role of Queen Muse.  Her turban was custom designed by Stephan Burrows.  I like it. She wins, where Lopez and others have failed.

Oluchi Onweagba in Oscar de la Renta is like a bold illustration, this is a model whose red carpet does inspire.  This is the look of a muse.

One color looks like Kate’s or the classic power of black and white done well will go a long way on the carpet. Thanks go to the legendary muse Coco Chanel for adopting the black and white power colors and emblems of men and their boyish interplay with the female body and attitude.  This is classic good stuff.  I guess Coco’s trousers and cigarette back in the day = Kate’s candy.  (Coming to the screen soon, muse Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel)

 

Coco Chanel

BEG TWO: PLEASE INVITE THE REAL NEW MUSES!

As a publicist who works with many designers, editors and stylists I completely understand the beauty of models and their personal style.  But if there is anyway to position yourself as old-fashioned and perhaps not viable, it would be to ignore what has always driven fashion and style and now more than ever…individuals way outside of the comfort zone of class and race and society’s red carpets.  Brands like Vogue do just that and it’s becoming so boring.

The legendary models in the exhibit, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Dovima, Suzy Parker, Sunny Harnett, and Dorian Leigh are highlighted in the exhibit but this was another era when all it took was beauty, a visionary photographer (and maybe some dramatic elephants) to make one sheath come alive. 

What if there were 50 random invites sent to street style experts like those bloggers I so admire such as the Queens at The Kingdom of Style, some random invites to the best Harajuku kids plus the winners of  The Alertnative Miss World contest.  (hmm… interesting typo: Alert-native for Alternative…) Everyone knows this is where looks originate that end up on Paris and London runways.  Now that would be an inspiring Costume Gala.  Legendary.  A model of ingenuity, perfect for the times.

BEG THREE: THE COLLABORATION OF TALENT IS KINDA THE NEW NEWS!

While it is true that anyone with the goods can be a model, it is still the the art directors and designers who are the actual muses and visionaries who determine the face of the moment.

Fashion historian and co-curator Kohle Yohannan,(whom I met while he was Mary McFadden’s muse/boyfriend, sporting tennis whites), who worked with the Met’s curator-in-charge Harold Koda,  commented:  “You look at those women and you understand what it meant to be modern in that time.” 

 “I think that any woman that inspires other women to want to lead the life that she lives – that’s a muse.” 

That inspiration comes from the team of talent and before all that from the artists, designers and culture makers themselves who use the model as their canvas.  If she or he is smart and is winking through the canvas…then you have a Muse.  Kohle, yes, your explanation PLUS mystery, interplay of tension and seduction…an interplay between creators and models.

BEG FOUR: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

THE MINIMALS

So if personality is a blank canvas…I beg you…is this what Ashley Olsen was thinking?

 Flavia de Oliveira and Chanel Iman in Zac Posen    Daria Werbowy in Balmain

                                                         Anna Jagodzinska in Altuzarra and…

                         Carmen Kass here in black Michael Kors are Muses of Minimal Sexy                                                  

A flash of pink or skin always works, Natalia Vodianova in pink Fortuny and Kate Bosworth in Stella McCartneyDesigner, Patrick Robinson and Virginia Smith Of Vogue

Ciara in Emilio Pucci, the last word in black and white simplicity, with Peter Dunder

BEG FIVE: GIVE ME INTELLIGENCE AND STIMULATION AND BANJI-REALNESS!

THE MAXIMALS

Derek Lam dress on Liya Kebede.  Her husband Kassy, behind her is also a favorite gentleman of mine…

 

 Anja Rubik in Balmain

 Caudia Schiffer in Atelier Versace

Haute Lou Doillon goes bezerk yet it works.  With Oliver Theyskens on her arm and wearing Nina Ricci

Lauren Hutton with and in Michael Kors, accessorized in Imperfection.  Skiing accident remains, famous imperfect teeth and sexy realness.  SHE WINS TOO!

BEG FIVE: CAN WE FINALLY APPRECIATE THE NUANCES THAT MAKE US LAUGH AND MAKE US NOT BELONG TO ANYTHING , BUT BE WEIRDLY AND SMARTLY TOSSED INTO ORIGINALITY?

MY FINAL BEG.  

Make sure you see Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World. In 1976, he hosted the Valentine’s Ball at which the Sex Pistols first got noticed and counts among his close friends and fans some of the world’s best Muses…Brian Eno, Derek Jarman, David Hockney, Zandra Rhodes, Divine and Anita Roderick.

Miss Alternative World video.

CAN WE HAVE MORE FUN AND LESS PLASTIC SURGERY?

BEG FINALE: WHAT INSPIRES YOU?  MINIMAL, MAXIMAL, FOREIGN LANDS AND PEOPLE, MUSEUMS, TINY FLOWERS IN THE DIRT, GLOWING COMPUTER SCREENS, REALLY GOOD COCKTAILS?  TELL ME.  I BEG YOU!

written by Jade Dressler

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Tracy Stern is A Teas

30Apr09

Very Short Schiaparelli Pink and Orange Creamsicle Cocktail Minis in the Wardrobe. It’s 1967 and I am age 7, in my mother’s closet. Little hands reach up to the hem edges of hot pink and orange popsicle colored wool mini-dresses dresses hanging there and I am “seven-year old swooning” over the juice of the colors, the weight of the fabric, the jewels embedded at the collar and the imagined nightclubs they are worn in.  I am already extending my world beyond the plastic bodies of Ken and Barbie and into far better imagined worlds evoked by hot-colored-party-worn dresses, lingering perfumes and liasions.

I am convinced my mother is Twiggy and hot pink and orange together will forever excite me. Clearly, the key to one’s life path can be found in child’s play…a tease of the Future.

Sunny Palm Beach, 1973.  

Tracy Stern gets her first flowery porcelain tea set from her parents’ latest antique jaunt to Europe and easily sees herself presiding over a Salon in Paris circa 18th century mixing Artists, Politicians, Writers, Scholars, Dandies, Musicians, Famous Lovers and Society hounds over fragrant and exotic teas and spiced cakes. She is Alice, assembling the cast at the Mad Hatter’s Tea, ruling the party and lording like a Lady from her pink velvet tufted throne, except she, unlike Alice, is not at all mad about “Murdering Time.”

She is having a blast and solidly set on her important hostess role and intent upon her game of “Tease.”

A Tease is a Flirt, Fun and a Portent of things to come.  Teas love rituals, excite exotically, calm, soothe, heal and bring people together.  Tracy Stern is all Teas.

Her Biz.

Today Tracy is the worldwide empire of Tracy Stern Tea, a society tea mistress lavishly combining hot pink and orange everywhere and making sure there is a disco ball in every room. She is a total tease encouraging the Murder of Time with the luxury of slowing down and sipping, bathing, eating, breathing and slathering on of TEA.

I’ve always admired her massive collection of vintage designer jewels and party dresses and was curious to know more about what makes Tracy and what makes her make teas. (Here she presides over her orange and pink home office and rocks a vintage Miriam Haskell necklace and vintage feather dress by Sonia Rykiel.)

I was happy to run into Tracy in her new Salontea Bar, 501 E 75th Street, where I went to have tea with my friend, Dame Lori, the city’s Pleasure Expert. (of course, more on Lori for another post!) Without hesitation, Tracy agreed to an exclusive look into her closets and her world at home. 

The Living Room.

The lushness of Tracy Stern Home (your next license darling!) begins with creamy white marble floors throughout creating a massive roller skating venue which Tracy’s kids, Chloe and Hunter on wheels, do endless rounds after round after round.  The windows wrap on 3 sides creating a floating island effect, especially in the way Tracy created individual sitting areas which all work together but each one cultivates a different mood. You can feel the guests who gather here and imagine the 18th century tea hostesses in hot pink and orange gowns who serve on roller skates at Tracy’s parties!

Every room has a light fixture that hovers between modern, vintage elegant and kitsch…she makes most of them.  Gold alligator upholstery is the only fitting choice for a Palm Beach bred entrepreneur serving tea in New York like it’s 1840.

In Between.

Everywhere there are The Tableaus.  In the hallway, Tracy’s own sketch sits among her trademark themes, silhouette portraits, graphic lines and drama.  Everywhere there are surprises that work from the black flocked wallpaper in her son’s room to a 7 foot tall massive silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock in her daughter’s room.

The Kitchen.

Mama Disco ball lords over the kitchen along with daughter Chloe taking a break from the mad rounds with her brother.

The Closet.

Tracy begins…”This is Miriam Haskell.”  ”This one was on the Dior runway.”  ”This one is Palm Beach thrift, I can’t say where because I already fight with Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler to see who gets what first.” “I have tons more in the back.”  ”These shoes I designed were worn by Paris Hilton.”  This woman needs a TV show. (or a curated show of her vintage collections, which I vow to do with her on the spot!)

Notes on The Bedroom.

The Dress: 1970’s YSL, the jewels are No-Name Vintage

The Signature Cool: “One should always have paintings on the ceiling.”  Tracy did a massive framed parquet of golden tone woods on the ceiling as you enter, she calls it “golden Mondrian.”

The Get Away:  The Bathtub, with tea and candles.  Every night.

The Exercise.  Fourteen flights of stairs instead of the elevator.

The Bedside Books:  ”Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Donny Deutsch’s book and “Richer Than Spices” by Gertrude Z.Thomas, the story of how tea was brought to England through Catherine of Bragnaza, a Portugese princess whose dowry from Charles ll of England, introduced cane, lacquer, cottons, tea, spices and porcelain to England, and so revolutionized taste, manners, craftsmanship, and history in both England and America.

Tracy and Tea would not be here if it wasn’t for these two royal lovers and the Tease of a Dowry.

From the esoteric to the simply childlike, Tea is a Tease. Bored royal lady smarties, women excluded from the coffee shops of men talking politics, geishas and monks with time on their hands adoring the meditation and enlightenment aid of tea… all are parts of the global puzzle of the still mysterious Time Murdering Culture of Tea. Deeper still are the “hmm, that makes sense” rants of my muse, Terence McKenna, author of “Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution”. His comprehensive theory that altered states have created culture as an agreement between plants and humans reads like an other-worldly tease tickling the human imagination.

On a lighter note, on Tracy’s new CD release of Tea Party mix of Paris tunes (including a song by my favorite, sultry Natacha Atlas), Billie Holiday croons the childlike but brilliant anthem for the contemplated, playful and tea-infused life. It’s totally in line with Tracy’s impassioned motto and the key to Why Tracy Stern Makes Tea: Enjoy Life. Drink Tea. Celebrate Often.

When we wanna work we work, when we want to play, we play.   In our happy setting, we’re getting.. some fun out of life.  Maybe we do the right thing, maybe we do the wrong…spending each day wending our way along…Billy Holiday

tracystern.com

photos of Tracy and her home by Kaitlyn Barlow and Nina Mattar, written by Jade Dressler

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Who is Dagny Taggart?

22Apr09

 

What Will You Stand For?

While judgment grows thick, while faith loses its choice, and while the people sit terrified, devouring their dinner, the media, and their feelings… there are those who do not allow good times to be by-gones, and instead, create.

A Immense Capacity for the Enjoyment of Existence

For the past ten years, the American culture has been driven by an obsession of luxury and simultaneously “second-rate work”: an infatuation built upon the ability and defiant immediacy to make money and become marketable without having done honest work. Unfortunately, because of these banal standards of living, we are currently involved in a recession that has forced the American culture to regress. At present, the idea of trend, fashion, or of spending hard-earned money on mindless material goods seems wasteful. If the economy is in recession, then the fashion industry must be in the Great Depression.

Ayn Rand, A Woman of New York

Despite the struggles, fashion will never become obsolete and thus I have decided to write about a fashion icon that gives a renaissance to the state of style.  Dagny Taggart, of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, is the Operational Manager and Vice-President of the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad. She was the saving grace of her family-owned industry, as well as, the savior of society when it was the most corrupt. The author of the novel, Ms. Rand, is known for her objective philosophies and the hark of the individual in terms of purpose and craft. I believe in her philosophies based on the idea of serving and developing the individual in order for the individual to ultimately benefit the community.

Dagny’s fashions, which are described with poignant detail in the novel, are uncomplicated, almost industrial, and they emulate the principles and structures, which employ her. Dagny wears the silhouette of a simple nature, but still is more remarkable than any other woman in the room. She wears neutral colors like grey and black, and it is her mannerisms and self-approved pride that distinguish her in a crowd.

“He saw a girl standing on top of a pile of machinery on a flatcar. She was looking off at the ravine, her head lifted, strands of disordered hair stirring in the wind. Her plain grey suit was like a thin coating of metal over a slender body against the spread of sunflooded space and sky. Her posture had the lightness and the unself-conscious precision of an arrogantly pure self-confidence.  She was watching the work, her glance intent and purposeful, the glance of competence enjoying its own function. She looked as if this were her place, her moment, her world, she looked as if  enjoyment were her natural state, her face was the living form of an active, living intelligence, a  young girls face with a woman’s mouth, she seemed unaware of her body except as of a taut instrument ready to serve her purpose in any manner she wished.” (519).

Miss Jolie is rumored to be portraying Miss Dagny Taggart in the whispered about, film version of Atlas Shrugged set for release in 2011.

It has been said, many times, that it is not what you wear, but how you wear it; and with grace, integrity, and self-understanding a little can go a long way. I prefer to refer to it as, Going Back to Basics, dressing in plain colors and sustaining one’s elegance, and by wearing well-tailored clothes and taking care of them, quality not quantity. Despite the appreciation I have for a healthy amount of expression and creativity displayed in people through their fashion sense, there is no need for circumstantial trend to dictate our lives as if we are consumer dummies…
It is, therefore, appropriate to state the success of simplicity; and to go as far as to say that in hiding the body with too much accessory is a distraction and an insult to the body as a machine and a vessel. Real-life examples of this would be our muse Coco Chanel or Margot Fonteyn, the famous ballerina.

Coco Chanel

Margot Fonteyn

It is our mind and spirit, which we need to impress upon the world, not multi-faceted flip-flops and headscarves.

Passing by a well-known vintage/designer boutique named Roundabout on Madison and 72nd Street in New York recently, I could not help but gasp each time I passed by a remarkable dress of a nature I questioned.

A Self-Proclaimed Statue of Liberty

The dress, by designer Donna Haag, was made of what looked like metal plates sewn together. It resembled steel, and the woman who would wear this dress would look like a skyscraper. I thought to myself, that during a economic crisis, this is the one dress that a New York woman can wear. In doing so, she would be a self-proclaimed Statue of Liberty.  I learned later that this dress was actually looked at by various PR and designer representatives as a dress for Paulina Porizkova for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, which this year will celebrate the Supermodel Era, this year, hosted by Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss and Justin Timberlake.

"Skyscraper Dress" by Donna Haag, at the Roundabout Boutique, Price Upon Request.

I have chosen to use this dress as an example of the style I describe, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because it is a piece of art and beauty, crafted by a designer with an exalted imagination. It is also of grave importance, because of its symbolism during a time period such as the present. It is a representation and dedication to strength, integrity and dignity; and such adjectives as these are what have defined and built New York City.

Last of all, because Dagny would have worn this dress and at an occasion, when New York needed it most; it embodies all that is simple, but with veracity that proves the convictions of the mind and ultimately the glory of the human body.

written by Emilie Ghilaga

 

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BRAND NEW SEXY ECONOMIC FUN : Organic Creative Coops

04Apr09

 

Visionary Buckminster Fuller famously said, “I am not trying to imitate nature, I’m trying to find the principles she uses.”

Come.  If the “Design to Function” ratio of Nature is always brilliant, then we proclaim these four (plus ONE) playful and innovative inventors as MAGICIANS mixing the old principles of nature, simplicity, cooperation and synchronistic balance into the BRAND NEW SEXY ECONOMIC FUN.

Play.  BRAND NEW SEXY ECONOMIC FUN means we stop complaining and get creative with what’s on hand as inspiration for creating new forms and fun.  Inspired with “what is” vs. “what is no longer.” OK, maybe it’s not the beach at St. Tropez right this minute, but what is here right in front of us and how can we get some smiling and innovation out of this?

Using Buckminster Fuller’s example, like a bee sampling a field of flowers, we hover and descend around the world to taste some portents of inspiration from the beautiful, where we see it or even more importantly…where we choose to see it. Perhaps one day we will do this respectfully around the earth and perhaps the solar system. 

From houses made of shipping crates to high-tech, low-tech worker coops to green pioneers being invited to The White House for their expertise, here are some of our friends who are doing amazing things to change how the game is played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE: READY-MADE HOUSES FROM SHIPPING CRATES: ADAM KALKIN

Adam Kalkin is a trickster combo of Sacha Baron Cohen, Marcel Duchamp and the nerd in Math class.  I originally met the architect and artist last summer on a covered deck turned into a dance floor at a private party in Princeton during a thunderstorm.  I was break dancing and he was doing a polka with his girlfriend, Jocelyn, a friend of mine.  We didn’t speak that night, but I could feel a kindred spirit through our dance styles.  

His site, Architecture and Hygiene is amusing to explore and I investigated his work more closely at this summer’s show at Moma in New York City, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling”, which ran from 
July 20–October 20, 2008.  The show featured several pieces of Adam’s.  His playful houses made of shipping containers and his marketing around them highlights the fun and fallacy of all structures given our biological inevitabilities and our temporary residence on the planet. 

Adam is like the Salvador Dali of architects, a showman creating a world of “art”, scenarios, recipes for suburban life and 1950’s do-it-yourself kits for instant houses, Quik-Build, all of which brands and wraps around the mass-produced and synthetic philosophy of his shipping containers as pre-fab houses.

A crowd-pleaser at the exhibit was Adam’s video montage with multiple windows into realities and symbols of home resembling the boxed segments or rooms of his houses.  Snails endlessly making love, a man weight-lifting his dog in a Sysiphian pulley system, an ever-burning fireplace, exploring the forest, a Jerry Lewis movie and an operation on a stomach happen simultaneously, a bee-like compound eye glimpse into the bigger picture of Life.

 See this Dwell magazine video for more on Adam. See CNN’s recent coverage of shipping container homes here.

TWO: KNITTING AGAIN: LADENE CLARK

I first read about Ladene Clark in stylist Sharon Pendana’s blog,Pendulum Swing and recently had the opportunity to ask her about her crocheted pieces which have been commissioned by artists such as India Arie and rapper Cee-Lo.

Jade: Where did all this crocheting come from?

Ladene:  I had all this hair and couldn’t find any hats.  Hats became bra tops became a dress and it went on from there.

J:  Who wears your clothing?

L:  It can be performers for the stage or everyday people.  It’s not sold in stores right now, people find me.  If you’re feeling me then I’m feeling you.

J: Design inspirations?

L: Right now a lot of African music like Cesaria Evora and Superreal, Alexander McQueen, classic movies and vintages stores and furniture or just walking around and paying attention to the trees or what catches my eye moment to moment.

J: Words to Live By?

L: Express, free up, don’t worry about judgement as long as you are true, all the rest will come.

THREE:  GREEN WORKER COOP: OMAR FREILLA 

Toxic Trash becomes our food?  Unfortunately true.  The landscape in New York’s Bronx neighborhood comes complete with factories making fertilizer from trash for farmers out West to grow our food (really) and Omar Freilla had a better idea. Nature recycles and renews and so Omar created Green Worker Cooperatives and ReBuilders Source to take building and construction waste out of the waste stream and recycle it: the doors and windows, counters and sinks, and appliances and hardware that usually end up in landfills have a new lease on life, as do the cooperative workers who now have green jobs.

Recently invited to the White House, little marvin and I had Omar on our Town Hall panel held last year called for an event we produced called “People of Color Don’t Care about the Environment” at The New York Society For Ethical Culture, moderated by Simran Sethi, host of Sundance Channel’s “The Green” to highlight the environmental injustice prevalent in communities of color. Simran was one of the few people of color highlighted in Vanity Fair magazine’s early “Green Issue”.  She was the perfect choice to moderate the provocative discussion of leading environmentalists and community leaders of color to discuss what environmentalist Van Jones, recently appointed Obama’s Special Adviser for green jobs, enterprise and innovation, calls: “Vanity Fair: The Unbearable Whiteness of Green”

Madonna was unavailable but the event was sponsored by The Sundance Channel and Uptown magazine to co-oincide with their January/February Philanthropy issue. (Len Burnett, publisher of Uptown, formally publisher of Vibe, was super supportive of this event).  You can watch Omar and other green pioneers speak on the Sundance Channel coverage of the event here: People of Color Don’t Care About The Environment. 

“The city’s major export is now trash,” Freilla says. “ReBuilders Source will be an alternative to that.” The store, selling revamped building components is a model he hopes to replicate in NYC and other cities. “We want worker cooperatives on every corner,” he says. “We’re out to create a model for a democratic and green economy.”

People can learn what it takes to run their own environmentally conscious business in weekly classes at the warehouse.  In a 16 week program, community members can envision themselves as possible owners rather than just employees, and create solid business plans.

Pioneering Green Justice, Self-Empowered Communities and Clever Innovation. This is Brand New Economic Fun. PS…Can someone introduce Adam Kalkin to Omar Freilla and make my dream house…Here’s the back view:

and the front looks like this:

Thanks for any and all referrals.  And now, for my perfect work space….

FOUR: AN URBAN KIBBUTZ FOR ALIENATED TECHIES: TONY BACIGALUPO, SANFORD DICKERT  

The drift from lone computer hunchbacks at Starbucks to cool co-working spaces is happening all over the world. And trust they are evolved beyond hide-out crash pads for boy techies.  

Finally, New York City has its own coworking enterprise,New Work City, thanks to my friends Tony Bacigalupo and Sanford Dickert. Visiting their very elegant Tribeca space a few weeks ago for a blogging meet-up, I was surprised to see a copy of a book Tony co-authored on the world-wide coop movement, “I’m Outta Here: How Coworking Is Making The Office Obsolete”.

New Work City provides community workspace for location-independent workers who share a big space and all the collaborative and creative benefits.  As an extension, Tony and Sanford plan to facilitate entrepreneurial activity in NYC with their latest venture, The Runway Project, a project to help people turn this crisis into an opportunity to become entrepreneurs. Their Coalition of Office Space Providers will be working with the NYC Economic Development Corp. to provide discounted office space for first-time entrepreneurs and one-off events.

 

 

 

 

FIVE:  GETTING PLAYFUL ON THE EARTH: ALL OF US.

Recently the whole world united and turned off the lights on monuments and public buildings…Earth Hour…one hour of darkness to lower the planet’s massive energy usage.  Magic happened.

A concert on the Cape became more lush…

A couple in Brighton celebrated their wedding, it was much more sexy…

Kids in Singapore made art and got goofy…

A few years ago, we challenged Orlando Florida’s Rollins College students to become a peace sign for the Global Peace Film Festival during the International Day of Peace. The playful and intentioned act, with 5 minutes of silence at one point, carried the message of what we can create together more effectively than expensive pamphlets, websites, ad campaigns and rhetorical speeches.  Economy of resources and simple human gestures will expand our lives and humanity in ways we can only vaguely remember. If we are not constantly abducted by our egos, the computer, twitter and all our “sexy” distractions then we have more time to play and innovate and really be starting something.  The Magic is unfolding.

written by Jade Dressler

Filed under: FASHION, HOME, MEN, NEW GREEN, STYLE, TRENDS   |  6 Comments
Tags: Adam Kalkin, aerial view peace sign, African Americans and the environment, Alexander McQueen, Architechiture and Hygiene, artists who knit, box houses, brand new sexy economic fun, buckminster fuller, Cee-Lo, Cesaria Evora, cnn, cnn recycled houses, co-working, container homes, cool knit clothing, craft clothes, crate homes, creative new economy, crochet clothes, crochet ideas, Dwell Adam Kalkin, Earth Hour, Fabricatng the Modern Dwelling, Global Peace Film Festival, green architecture, green pioneers, green urban, green urban living, Green Worker Cooperatives, green worker coops, Home Delivery, I'm Outta Here!, India Ari, India Arie style, jade dressler, knit artists, knit clothes, knits, knitting ideas, Ladene Clark, Len Burnett, Little Marvin, little marvin producer, MOMA, new craft style, new economic ideas, new economy, new economy ideas, new knitting ideas, newcrochet artists, Omar Friella, one box at a time, peace sign, people in a peace sign, People of Color Don't Care About The Environment, Princeton architect, Princeton crate homes, Quik build, ready made houses, readymade houses, ReBuilders Source, recycled homes, recycled houses, Rollins College Peace, Sanford Dickert, Sharon Pendana, shipping box homes, shipping container home, shipping container homes, shipping crate homes, Simran Sethi, Sundance Channel's The Green, Superreal, The Runway Project, Tony Bacigalupo, Uptown magazine, Van Jones, whiteness of green movement, worker coops

Invoking Drala: Alexander McQueen

15Mar09

Drala.  A Tibetan concept that translates to Beyond and Above Aggression. Blameless. Connected to the essential and trancendant powers of Nature.  The Purity of Body. Red and black glossy swollen and passionate lips. Clothing as cocoons of protection. Hats made of found unlikely objects.  Alexander McQueen’s Fall 09 collection was in full expression of invoking the concept of Drala.  Much as the image of a Shaman can shock… Photo by Hans Silvester

McQueen invoked the essential realness of Nature and timelessness and our place within that sacred web in a very modern and abstract way.  No small feat. photo by Roberto Kusterle

To swim in the sea of this cacophonic modern life within the power of perfected forms invokes drala so that we may be strengthened as we move in the world.  To be fierce yet soft within a world of old disconnected ideas, beyond the Barbie-doll and childlike expressions of clothing and our bodies, is a point of power that this collection inspires. These clothes blow-up artistic, sartorial and historical references to invoke A MUSE versus a mouse. The references are timeless…from Power-Framing and drala-welcoming details like the Renaissance ruffs or Masai muffs,   to the Dior New Deal skirts and Chanel houndstooth, re-worked here as a black and white tango danced in an epiphany of duality. I recalled the famous image of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn…very invoking the balance of exteror and interior dralas, the combination of which rises Secret Drala or “Windhorse”, as described by in Chogyam Trunpa his book SHAMBALA: The Sacred Path of the Warrior as “…raising a wind of delight and power and riding on, or conquering that energy.”  As a Buddhist monk who himself was seen with an “ever-present glass of saké, a man who took many lovers, was chauffeured in a black Mercedes, and, though paralyzed, rode a white Lipizzaner stallion,” according to Waylon H. Lewis, founder of Elephant magazine, who grew up with the monk, this was someone who knew how to live with drala. The contained shapes of McQueen’s models recalled the concept of external drala, that is that one’s environment be indicative of cleanliness and offering to someone visiting.  Like an offering bowl, the dark simplicity and the volume. Adding red to the darkness of black is an indication of the life force within the offering, spilling outward towards others.  The idea that we save the world as we cultivate, protect, shore-up and make ourselves an offered expression of beauty.  The dress above recalls the soft and simple richness of a Buddhist monk’s robe draping and moving with the body. and this power of red… like a shaman, we can dress ourselves and carry ourselves like statues of honor so that we feel heroic in our lives.  Even heroic with a sense of bold humor, the most transforming element.  To have so much fun with clothing, environment, the conversation of Self and Nature and Society is the edge that brings one to power of life beyond aggression…drala. Photo by Phyllis Galembo In our modern world the idea of “offering” may not be directly ceremonial, however the concept suggests that both interiorly and exteriorly, we operate this way. Photo by Phyllis Galembo

Trungpa says, “You can see people’s internal connection to drala in the way they behave: the way they pick up their teacups, the way they smoke their cigarettes or the way they run their fingers through their hair.” This connection and expression of the “Cosmic Mirror” is a minute to minute meditation. Mirroring the essential balance, peaceful order of life…AND being swathed in Alexander McQueen…I am there.

written by Jade Dressler

Filed under: FASHION, PARIS Style, STYLE   |  4 Comments
Tags: 2009, Alexander McQueen, art and style, best runway make up, buddhist philosophy, Chogyam Trungpa, concept of drala, Drala, dream style mystics, Elephant journal, Elephant magazine, Elizabethan ruff, FASHION, fashion 2009, fashion shaman, Hans Silvester, Hans Silvester Daily Mail, Harlequin, Irving Penn, jade dressler, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Masai collar, McQueen, McQueen Fall 09, McQueen runway, Phyllis Galembo, Roberto Kusterle, shaman fashion, Shaman style, Shambala, style consciousness, style mystics, The Sacred Path of the Warrior, warrior style, Waylon H. Lewis