Los Angeles in Pieces & Parts

Images from Culver City gallery walk on Washington Blvd between Helms Walk and Fairfax Ave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deer at Getty Villa the Italy in LA

The calm and serenity of this recreated Pompeii Villa is easy understand, when in  Disneyland-style a deer frolics so near!

LACMA is always an iconic art stop

and bright experience especially when you start our day in the neighborhood with pastries and beyond from Republique.

HAMMER!!!

This museum is so potent and dynamic that my experience fell into two distinct categories. The Armand Hammer Collection revitalized my love of some long life favorites, mainly Gustave Moreau. There is always so much to learn from the skill of these traditional masters. The beauty of these compositions and my, clearly bias, love of bouquets translated elegantly into "The Stories Of Almost Everyone" exhibit. Every object has a story. What does it mean when you place that object and that story in an institutional setting and burden it with a canon of higher meaning? Some of these works were pure cheek, while others were heartbreaking records of human history. 

Indulgences:

The pop up shop at Hammer (Rat Bastards), GUCCI (another theme park moment waiting in the long Rodeo Drive line to get into the storefront) Laduree Salon de Tea (the height of French decadence, eventually I’ll patron every Laudree in the world)

The End

at the Castle in the Rain - Greystone Mansion and Park

An icon in the film industry. It was worth winding up into the Beverly Hills as this epic house made for a great last look at the L.A. cityscape, even through a rainstorm.

On Fashionable PDX Thursday

It has been my zietgeist lately to support all the creative people in my life. This has been leading me to many different places ranging from Folk music at "Dr. Who" theme dive bars to the white tents of PortlandNXT Fashion Show on Thursday evening.

It was a fabulous time, with micro local celeb sightings (Project Runway Stars), confusion and  Pinot Grigio NOT Chardonnay and wonderful INSPIRING runway shows.

It is not surprising that the show I liked the most was that of Myriam Marcela, who happens to be a striking acquaintance I met at an art opening, and who I was there to support. Her vision is all about vintage made current or as she describes, "Vintage Revival".  Everything that walked the runway seemed new but had well edited vintage spirit as well as a strong since of print with a bit of Spanish flair (her homeland).

The other stand out designers that made the evening amazing were:

ATIZ who wowed with a cleaver mixture of fabric textures and prints. Ranging from light and airy to luxuriously thick.

"The inspiration and scope behind the Àtiz collection is rich and wide, but each piece contains the blending of Eastern sophistication with Western originality. Though her Indian heritage informs all of her looks, Padmaraj nonetheless translates this historical and cultural legacy into a refined, timeless international look."

Sonia Kasparin "Bespoke Couture" stunned the audience with this simmer full length simmer gold number!!!

Wendy Ohlendorf gave the audience fantasy and whimsey with headdress in and dramatic defined shapes.




Ghana IN Vermont

These bright and colorful patterns are amazing no matter where you are. My fabulous friend Lizzy hand picked this print to bring back to this side of the globe all they way to her lovely new home in Vermont. This first print is a custom design from her two year peace core adventure in Ghana. As a friend she teaches me so much with her bright sprite and as a maker she brought the crafts of the village home with her, together we made Shea butter cream and strung African beads. Her world is a true fashion inspiration!!

For more information about the process of textiles in Ghana: GHANA TEXTILE

SPRING and The Grand Budhapest Hotel

Checking Out, Vouge

&

The Grand Budapest Hotel

If any art form was going to rival and beat Wes Anderson to the punch it would be Vogue. 

 This fantastical photo shoot show cases the best couture of Spring published in Vogue March 2012. This was published just as couture was become revitalized with new energy and wonder. Frothing like a french pastry the shoot lets Kate Moss show off her amazing skills while paying homage for the Ritz Hotels closure in Paris. 

All this striking imagery reminded me of the best visual movie of the year: The Grand Budapest Hotel. 

With visual luxuries,  grand dame/supper model, love, and a historic tend setting hotel. 

What more could you need to set your spring fashion imagination soaring?

White as Winter White as Paper

The following looks are all about the trendiest of non-colors 
to wear for winter, the clean the fresh white. 
The article below is about using paper techniques, such as origami,
to create structured dimension in clothing. 
It come out via Vogue a few season before the resurgence of minimalism dressing
 which still makes use of strong angles edges and detail much like the crisp folding of a paper.









Black Textures for Fall



 It is all in the details! 
Texture added to black and white with print (seahorses!), dip die, and jewel embellishment 
(Balmain-pearls), creates a new dimension for our wardrobe staples, that once were so flat!
A bit rock 'n roll, a bit romantic, either way you were is so cool.






Blue Cha Cha


                                                                     This was one of my favorite spring 2011 Prada collection:
                                                                                               Fun WEARABLE wimsy!!!!


 Blue Cha Cha STILL
We still feel summery, a little tan, freckled and bright. The seasons have other plans, so prep for the chill, while staying colorful with a relaxed summer vibe: i.e. TRIBAL or as Harper's Bazzar describes "HAUTE HIPPIE" vibe.






A Spring Dripping in Honey

"As Egyptian mythology has it, swarms of bees migrated across the desert first tumbled to Earth as tears from Ra, the ancient sun god. In keeping with Alexander McQueen's romantic, macabre sensibility, Sarah Burton's latter-day insects rendered in brass-each glimmering with a topaz-crystal abdomen-are meticulously handcrafted by Italian artisans ans affixed to tortoiseshell-patterned Plexiglas cuffs. It's all enough to make us buzz like... well bees on a honeycomb."
 -Vogue March 2013







GUCCI's  idea of Bees.  
 
Original Painting by Arielle Adkin
A Spring Dripping in Honey
I can not deny how struck I am by the artistry
of the Alexander McQueen Spring 2013 collection.  
It is a sartorial take on the natural beauty of honeybee, it's hive and those that keep them. However literally gorgeous the hive dresses and veiled hats, this collection goes beyond into a darker fantasy. The allure of sweet honey and the sting of the bees. I recognize political aspects in collection with the bridging of urban fashion world with the natural world that Sarah Burton has addressed in her collections before. The life of the honey bee is threatened, celebrate this subtle and spectacular bring of awareness to the adornment of our necks, wrists, and bodies. This beauty is worth the risk of the sting, and the that is the true sensuality of spring. 

“The collection is a study of femininity. We looked at erotica. Vargas girls, cages, corsets and crinolines and the idealized female form. Nothing is set in a particular period. It’s about sensuality and skin but not nudity. We also wanted to express lightness, for the clothes almost to hover over the women who wear them.” 
Sarah Burton

Then and Now



  Altuzarra: Then/ 2010




 
Altuzarra: Now/2013

 

Prabal Gurung: Then/2010

 
Note the ruffles! very spring 2013


Prabal Gurung: Now/2013


 


 Matthew Ames

 

Gryphon 





 Article via Vogue 2010
This was Vogue's artical about up-in coming designers in 2010,  so intriging at the time now some are so famous, like Altuzarra and Prabal Gurung and others still extesting in the fridges, of art house, Matthew Ames, or small labels, Gryphon. You desided if their perdictions were right on or if they have yet to make there mark on the fashion world.

 
The two Jewelry designers mentioned above are linked here:






To Reflect

                                                   The article that follows is high-lighting young great fashion designers. When this article came out they were still new to the scene, burgeoning into the fashion icons they are now. It is only upon reflection that we see how their "pioneering" help shape the fashion of now.
                                                         As all of you fashion devotees follow the new fall collections on Instagram, Twitter, all in the present, all right now, which is arguably, what fashion is all about. Fashion is every changing ever now, which it should be! 
                                                        However, it occurred to me that only after time has past that we can recognize the statement with in the art, the art of fashion, the point of view, the true avant-guard, the trends the color and more importantly the clothing that WE actually want to where! So while all other fashion blogs are sharing the NOW I am here to share a reflected upon, edited, present. I strive to find and show classic timeless and real artists of fashion.


   


Rich Winter















Rich Winter
Make it a rich winter of: Prints, Texture, Jewel Tones and the Luxuries of the 70's.  
The print craze is all around, the textural tribal prints of Proenza Schouler (See collection Here) Fall 2011collection inspired by the Navajo patterns of my Santa Fe home, and the clean geometric prints of Loewe and Marni (Fall 2012) that bounce right on to that jewel tone silky 70's dress
 topped in bold velvet or fur. 
Thus you have warmth all the way to your fashion core!

Star


STAR: Yves Saint Laurent
Amongst the mood boards of the "new neutrals:" the beige the grey the green is one of the my most fashionably striking photos. I could not pass on the opportunity to call attention to the beauty of Kate Moss in a structured clean grey Yves Saint Laurent dress from spring 2008 beyond these two beauties the photograph itself is amazing it is what fashion and desire is all about! The reflective shine and sparkle of stars doesn't hurt. As we celebrate the most sparkly holiday of them all, may this photo inspire you to step out as your classiest shiniest self!

The Green and Grey of It




In keeping with the style theme of the "new neutral" these wardrobe building piece are even better in alternative greens and greys. The clean and polish is there but with a bit more of a tomboy, masculine twist, army green is the ultimate modern girl neutral.

New Neutral



This image (shown above) began my love affair with Valentio. His dresses are clean with the perfict balance of femmine with and edge. Build your wordrobe around one of these dresses and you can't go wrong.
Newtral: for a New Year.
After all the glittery tensile, red and green, the overall sensory overload, lets clean the plate with some wardrobe building neutrals. Chic in their simplicity. They also allow the wearer to be that much more creative with their wardrobe. It’s all about the versatility that can re-inspire you to wear what you all ready have in your closet.