Hats are Haute

From Marc Jacobs' runway to The Sartorialist, hats are topping off fashion's most alluring outfits. Pull the brim low and embrace your mysterious side. If you are feeling particularly confident, add a punchy 40's inspired red lip. The amazing transformation that happens when a woman puts on a good hat is remarkable! Instant chic.


Same girl in both photos, from The Sartorialist. I adore how she's wearing different hats, but in the same quirky, jaunty and humorous manner. Isabella Blow would be proud to see a real woman wearing a hat that is more avant garde than the usual newsboy.


Isabella Blow's eccentric style quickly set her apart from the rest, catapulting her to success as a fashion director at Vogue and Tatler. Her unusual style and penchant for Phillip Treacy hats made her into a style icon. Her recent suicide may have influenced this season's fashion designers, as such creations were a staple on the FW 07.08 runways.


vivienne westwood, marc jacobs, thesartorialist, streetstyle, Proenza Schouler, Roberto Cavalli, Vivienne Westwood, Hussein Chalayan, Christian Dior, Betsey Johnson, marc jacobs

5 things to think about

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Since realizing that the 7th book is coming out in less than 2 months, July 21, I have decided to read all the other books this summer in preparation for its release. I've read all the books, but out of order and not in the same time frame. and to those who think I cant read them all before the release... I should let you know that I read fast. really fast. really really fast. I'll be sure to pop in and give a little blurb on each book as I finish them.

Shoe Designers to watch:
Carmen Ho's excellent unusual flats, Pierre Hardy's iconic heels, Rickard Shah's ladylike stilts and Loeffler Randall's bohemian luxe collection make their shoes standouts amongst the more pedestrian offerings of the more well-known houses. It seems that even shoes are in a race to decide whom is the victor in vanity.

Paris Hilton:
Is she in? Is she out? I demand that the Simple Life producers get themselves in check and start making some calls to the warden. "The Simple Life" season 6 is already in production, toss Nicole Ritchie on the back of your vespa and grab a camcorder! Television gold is being wasted by the moment. Key scenes involving deliveries of cupcakes, a vietnamese manicurist and trunks from Kitson have already been missed!

Rothko record setting sale:
A Rothko painting sold for $72.8 million dollars. Watch the bidding go up in increments of $1 million. ....whisper.

Spectacles:
Not just for grandpa anymore! Check out these hand turned, individual, one-of-a-kind, handmade glasses offered by Urban Spectacles Absolutely amazing specimens of wearable art. I love how the thicker frames show off the wood grain, but the wayfarers made of out of old records are sublime.

Yoox.com REVIVAL GUCCI COLLECTION

A small collection of iconic bags from ultraluxe fashion house Gucci are being offered up to online vintage connesieurs on Yoox.com. Pretty good deals to be had all around at yoox.

Tribute to Gucci
recent
vintage

Fashion's hottest muse is Scarlett Johansson

Louis Vuitton has chosen to use coy Scarlett Johansson in their Fall Winter advertisements for the third time. Scarlett first modeled for Louis Vuitton, for which Marc Jacobs is the artistic director, in 2004. Louis Vuitton has solidified it's reputation for providing the highest quality luxury goods so it is not surprising that many campaigns have featured celebrities, including Uma Thurman, Chloe Sevigny, Christina Ricci and Jennifer Lopez.

Louis Vuitton's comuncations director, Antoine Arnault noted that Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs "adores" Johansson and based his fall-winter collection for the house around her character in "Girl With a Pearl Earring," the 2003 feature film about a peasant girl who becomes the model for 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's most famous work.

I'm not quite sure I see the connection, perhaps stemming more from the luxurious interior of Vermeer's house, perhaps if there was an alternate ending... and the maid had ended up with the master, it's how they would have lived.



f/w 2004




s/s 2007

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 40 years ago today spurring a change in pop music that still influence musicians today. Using brand new technology in their Abbey Road studio, The Beatles created "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" during a year-long hiatus in their constant touring schedule after the height of Beatlemania. Using technology that was specifically designed for the musicians, such as ADT (automatic double taping which increases the sound of the lead singer's vocals) and studio electronic alteratation, such as echo, mixing, reverb and reverse tape effects.


The album was the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1968. In 2003, 35 years later, the album was ranked number 1 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The Cover was designed by pop artist Peter Blake and has become an immortal identifiable image unto itself. The cover shows The Beatles, as the Sgt. Pepper band, surrounded by a large group of their heroes, rendered as lifesized cut-out figures. Also included were wax-work figures of the Beatles as they appeared in the early '60s, borrowed from Madame Tussauds. The wax figures appear to be looking down on the word "Beatles" spelled out in flowers as if it were a grave.

The infamous cover features some of the band's favorite people: Marlene Dietrich, Bob Dylan, Sigmund Freud, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Oliver Hardy, Lenny Bruce, original Beatles bass player, the late Stuart Sutcliffe, Hitler is hidden behind The Beatles... and more. Click here to read about all about the mythology of the people & images on the cover.

Listen to the record today; forty years later and still fresh.

Marc Jacobs for Vans FW 07

The newest Marc Jacobs designs for Vans have been revealed!


I am loving how the flat screenprint is playing with current trends without being like a screenprinted tuxedo t-shirt. The wingtip design is the most successful, maintaining Marc Jacob's signature whimsy in an accessable, wearable and edgy item. In mens fashion, there have been many strides towards merging sportswear shoes with classic formal shoes, resulting in designs such as formal leather shoes with athletic footwear details. This design is a quirky warholian take on the classic man's shoe.

or get all DIY and design your own combo using Vans' custom sneaker designer! custom sneaker designer choose slip-on or sneaker style!


sneaker freaker

HBO missing out on Carnivale

I've recently discovered the HBO series, Carnivale via their HBO onDemand service. I remember flipping through the channels and coming upon it, but coming into the series mid-way made me confused as to the importance of certain events or lines as they occurred. However, since HBO recently started showing Carnivale in order from episode 1, I decided to check it out.


CARNIVALE follows a traveling carnival as it wends its way across the Dust Bowl, focusing on Ben Hawkins, a mysterious 18-year-old fugitive with hidden talents who is taken in by the carnival, and Brother Justin, the charismatic, shadowy evangelist who will ultimately cross his path. The series takes place at a time of worldwide unrest, with evil on the rise around the globe and the Great Depression wreaking economic and social havoc here at home.source HBO

starrring: Nick Stahl, Clancy Brown, Michael J. Anderson, Clea DuVall, Tim DeKay, Amy Madigan and Patrick Bauchau.




The show was canceled in 2005 by then-CEO Chris Albrecht, citing high production costs and high actor salary demands that obviously accompany with such a large, talented cast. However, now that he's been ousted by the corporation after a particularly character gouging incident in which he assaulted a female companion... hmmm. Perhaps the heads at HBO will take notice that perhaps his judgement isn't so spot on and Carnivale needs, nay MUST be brought back!


The first two seasons are just two parts in a six part story originally designed by creator, Daniel Knauf. HBO agreed to produce all 6 parts of the series, but pulled out after only 30% complete. The fan outcry at the cancelation of this show blew HBO executives away at the time of cancellation, apparently not enough to revive the series. Over 50,000 emails alone were received by HBO shortly after they announced they were not going to continue Carnivale. Still, two year after the cancellation, fans are still attempting to get the show back on the air, yet HBO still does not give into the wishes of their viewers and suscribers.
Buisness Week
NPR podcast on Carnivale

This show is so worth watching. Epic in stature and storytelling, this fictious world enveils it's tantalizing deceits, inquisitions and revelations in a most unconventional manner. Go rent the DVD and watch, see for yourself. I can't explain more than that. You will regret it if you don't watch and savor it.


Bring Carnivale back please.
I dont ask for almost anything that nicely!
Save Carnivale