Pocket Sized Art For All

For several years we received, as Christmas gifts from my in-laws, post card sized images by various artists.  They bought the postcards each year at RCA Secret, an exhibition and sale put on by the Royal College of Art in London.  ”Secret” refers to the fact that in the exhibition the postcards are displayed anonymously.  The name of the artist who drew the image on each card is written on the verso, so that it remains unknown until the card has been purchased.  It’s a little bit like The Voice  for the art world, although in this case many of the artists participating are already recognized and established figures.  Still, it can be a lot of fun to view the exhibition, and even more to buy a postcard or two, for a very reasonable price, purely because you respond to the image, and only later to attach a name to that image.  (You can see the postcards from the November 2011 edition of the RCA show here – they’re really fun!)

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Valentine’s Day Gifts – Get Something Fab

Today is about shopping.  I do like to support creative folk — often my justification for shopping — but I also have the tangential excuse right now that this post is actually about Valentine’s Day shopping, which should be of concern to anyone with a significant other.  (No dear, that’s not a hint — I am an exception since we know I buy everything anyway, so there is absolutely no need to get me a Valentine’s Day gift — but I do think the necklaces from A.N. Original Jewelry are ab fab!)

Fab.com tends to find incredible products in all sorts of categories, but I am particularly taken with some of the jewelry designers they have turned up recently, especially in conjunction with Valentine’s Day.  The Fab.com Valentine’s Day Gift shop features felt jewelry by Amy Pfaffman.  The earrings aren’t particularly my thing, but the necklaces are really cute.  They are laser cut felt silhouettes of famous modern chairs, which admittedly has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day whatsoever, but they are unique, attractive, and at $18 something of a no-brainer as far as little gifts go.

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Another Affordable Designer Capsule Collection … Ho Hum

Karl by Karl Lagerfeld

Is it just me, or is this whole affordable designer capsule collection thing just spinning out of control?  I bet you’re getting tired of reading posts about designer collaborations. I’m getting tired of hearing of them and I am obsessed with the damn things. That suggests to me that something is clearly out of whack. Let’s take stock of the collections since the summer:

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty – Thank You Alberta Ferretti

A lot of what makes high fashion exciting is it’s distance from reality.  Clothes that seem weird, difficult or are controversial, from characters who are even more weird, more difficult and more controversial, makes for exciting buzz.  To generalize wildly, the designers tend to be flamboyant men, or remarkably unadorned women who hide behind their hair and oversized unassuming clothes, while creating fantasies which they would clearly never where themselves.  But there is a third category of designer who I think tends to get short shrift — elegant well dressed women who design clothes that they represent their personal style.  They don’t always get lost in the melé – women like Donna Karen and Diane von Furstenberg have certainly had their moments in the sun, and everyone I have in mind has had a successful career and made a mighty good living designing clothes which is no small feat – but the attention they get is somehow different, and I think doesn’t do justice to their brilliance as designers.  In this vein, I am always surprised that there isn’t more talk about Alberta Ferretti.  No question, she is acknowledged as a major designer, but it seems to me that she isn’t placed in the same pantheon as say John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld or Alexander McQueen.  And admittedly, her clothes reflect a very different kind of artistry.  But season after season, without fail, she designs some of the most pretty clothes I have ever seen (all of which I want, and most of which – even without a supermodel’s figure – I could actually wear).

I don’t know if it’s just my own perception, but “pretty” tends to be something of a dirty word.  Like the curse of faint praise.  Oh, she’s very pretty.  How pretty, dear.  As if to say, well, it’s not quite fabulous, but don’t feel bad.  Pretty means soft and superficial, lacking teeth.  As much as I love grit and edge, I want pretty to be an acceptable, even desirable, quality.  When done really well, done just right, pretty can take your breath away.  That’s what Alberta Ferretti does.  Both with her eponymous line and her younger Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti line, she exudes pretty that’s not saccharine but perfection.

Alberta Ferretti Spring 2012 - Image via Style.com

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

The British Are Coming … And This Time They’re Really Well Dressed

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to unravel this one. I’m just perplexed by the fact (yes, I believe it to be fact) that the British have such better taste in consumer goods (and especially apparel) than Americans.  Wild generalization, but my powers of observation suggest to me that this is actually true.  For some reason that seems counterintuitive to me.  Every stereotype I know about British Culture would suggest to me that they would have horrible taste in consumer goods.  Clearly I know the wrong stereotypes.  I think it comes of growing up in Massachusetts. New Englanders are such misers, so conservative and lacking in taste when it comes to frivolities, and there’s a tendency to ascribe that to our Puritan roots, our Yankee heritage. You name it. But I’ve always understood the failings of New Englanders to be the fault of the original Englanders. I guess we have to stop passing the buck.

Certainly there is a conservative strain in British society, but even that strain has an odd element of whimsy to it. Just think of the array of hats at the royal wedding. We all made fun of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. God only knows I sure did. The hats are absurd. But upon reflection, I’m finding I kind of have to admire their boldness. Maybe they took the hats seriously, but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were having “a bit of fun” with those hats. They are definitely ridiculous hats. They are also fun(ny), and when it comes to fashion, in my book fun trumps boring any day.

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Can This Company Succeed? And Where’s The Revolution?

A friend of mine sent me a curious article this morning.  If you want to read it, the url is  http://www.portfolio.com/executive-style/2011/11/11/everlane-launches-with-designer-quality-goods-under-100-bucks?ana=e_pft.  Basically, it introduces the start-up company Everlane.  The shtick is no middlemen, no stores, limited labeling and brand identification.  The company offers a limited range of designer-quality items which it sells directly on its site and, as a result, can deliver quality product for very low prices.  The big message seems to be – “don’t be fooled, those other brands are ripping you off with all of their nonsense, it doesn’t really cost that much to make clothes.”  Well … yes and no.  I don’t have anything against Everlane.  It might deliver a fantastic product.  But I find the company’s positioning an oversimplification and somewhat insulting to other manufacturers.  I take issue with the notion that the business model is so innovative.  And I’ll be very curious to see how Everlane fares in the market.  

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Confession Time

OK, I have to make a confession.

– Let me preface this post by saying that this is only for those of you who are interested in fashion and/or shopping.  Anyone interested in the more philosophical aspects of this blog will have no interest in this post and shouldn’t read any further.  I am capable of more depth than what follows, but there is no question that the superficial often gets the better of me.  I find that superficial concerns can be quite funny, which makes life a lot more fun after all. However, for those who like pretty pictures, this post is extremely wordy.  In other words, this post should appeal to about two people. I promise I won’t make a habit of this.  –

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Are You Prepared to Sleep on the Street for Donatella?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I all of the talk about the Versace for H&M collection exhausts me and there are still two more days until it launches!!  Maybe I’m bitter and jaded from the Missoni mess?  Tiring from all of these collaborations?  That couldn’t be, could it?  There is almost nothing I won’t do for great fashion.  It’s a little out of control.  The day that the Missoni collection went on sale I was reading all of the rants and pleas on the Target Style Facebook page and pointed out to a friend that as nuts as I might appear to be about sales, clothes, shopping – you name it – at least there were people clearly a lot more extreme than I.  She laughed and said, “Don’t fool yourself, you’re plenty crazy.”  Having admitted that, and acknowledging that I have been excited about the Versace collection for H&M since I first heard about it, and the clothes look AMAZING — even if I’ll look like space woman wearing that fabulous black floral tunic and leggings, I am dying to wear it — I’m kind of stunned that I really cannot bring myself to line up in front of H&M at whatever absurd hour on Saturday (Friday night?) to have some sort of hope of getting into the store while there’s still merchandise.  It seems pretty clear that if you’re not there first thing on this one, it will be all over before you know it.  So I’m trying to resign myself to what appears to be fact — I will not be getting any of the Versace clothes.  You have to understand, for me that’s a little bit heart breaking.  But I just don’t think I have it in me to go as nuts as this one requires.

So … in an effort to console myself, and anyone else who is in the same boat, if you can’t get those fabulous Versace leggings, here are some other options:

1.  Go RIGHT NOW to Hautelook before these things sell out!  Yes, it still involves an element of mania, but at least you can do it easily from in front of your computer in the middle of the afternoon, so check out the Betsey Johnson and Anna Sui sales.  No, they’re not Versace — at all, I know — but they’re not a bad alternative (and perhaps a little more wearable).  Coincidence that Hautelook is having this sale today?  I think not.

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

Gotta Love Capitalism. Right?

Supply and demand, price point — market forces are a powerful thing.  They’re the reality of how our financial system operates.  But still, it’s so darn unfair sometimes … it can’t help but burn a little.  Target messed up big time with their Missoni collection.  There’s really no excuse.  A company that large and that successful, their computer systems simply should have been ready to handle the influx of traffic and should have been programmed correctly to manage inventory vs. incoming orders.  I was interested to learn that Target’s website had been managed in conjunction with Amazon up until a month before the Missoni launch at which point Target took on sole management of its website.  Oops.  If you ask me, it’s just plain irresponsible.  And then canceling the orders of customers that were placed at 6 am on the day of the launch while fulfilling orders placed later for the exact same merchandise.  It’s incredibly disrespectful of their dedicated customers.  But the amazing thing is that Target, most likely, will not have to pay any price for the blunder.  Had a smaller company pulled the same thing, it would be out of business, plain and simple.  Target being Target, we all somehow still feel the need to shop there — a need that doesn’t go away overnight.  We still see it as a unique source of affordable, tasteful fashion.  True style for the masses.  And the designer collaborations continue.

So, in spite of the morally righteous anger that I feel toward Target for canceling a large part of my order (yes, I’m secretly glad they did, since they saved me a hell of a lot of money spent on stuff I absolutely did not need … but still), I find myself compelled to jump right on board again and order half of the hats in the Albertus Swanepoel for Target collection.

They’re great hats.  They’re $19.99 each.  I am not a hats person.  I feel utterly self conscious in a hat.  And yet for $19.99, who can resist?  They’re just so darn much fun.  And that is much of the beauty of fashion after all — having fun.  So I already have the darn hats in my cart at Target.com, and am planning my trip to the store for those that aren’t available online.

Read the rest of this entry »

share this

You want me to wear WHAT?

OK, I am all about designer collaborations with mass market venues.  Missoni for Target last month — AWESOME!  Infuriating in how poorly it was handled by Target, but a great collaboration.  Karl Lagerfeld for Macy’s at the end of August — hit or miss, but some truly special pieces.  I got a blouse which receives loads of complements every time I wear it.  These collections are the work of gifted designers.  I would not have the opportunity to own their work under any other circumstances.  And I see it as a wonderful development that the general public now has access to beautiful clothes made by talented designers previously reserved for an elite few.

So, I can hardly wait for the Versace for H&M collection to hit stores on November 19.  I’m not sure what to do about the prospect of having to camp out in front of H&M before dawn in order to have any hope of getting anything, but the women’s designs are fabulous and I have my eyes on a few things.  And yet, I am left dumbstruck by the men’s collection.

from the Versace for H&M ad campaign

Read the rest of this entry »

share this