HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We interrupt Rick Owens Week for HALLOWEEN. As everyone knows, Halloween is an extremely important holiday as it celebrates dressing up in an extravagant, irresponsible and sometimes completely foolish looking costume while pretending to be someone, anyone, other than yourself. How fun!

As an alumni of the Large Midwestern University which has taken clebrating Halloween to a new level, I take my costumes verrrrry seriously. Sort of.


Hmmmmmm...let me see...what, or who am I?

Donatella Versace? Nah, obviously not (done that)! A Gautier runway model? Nah, done that too. Tickle Me Elmo Fairy? I do not believe Elmo would be caught dead in these black lace gloves, but you never know. I was going to be the Bad (Hair Day) Fairy, but my attempt at truly Bad Hair is not readily apparent and only supports the Gaultier theory. I'm still going with it though, if anyone asks. In this get-up, know one knows if I am a high schooler or not, so I have cleverly planned a trick-or-treating route including all the houses know to give away the full-sized candy bars.



Now go! Away with you! Have a good time and don't forget: LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE YOU CROSS THE STREET!

Au revoir...

RICK OWENS BOOTS FROM MARS

O.K., you've heard of those '70's staples Moon Boots? These Rick Owens boots are like from Mars! They are so crazy-ugly, they're cool. When I first saw them, I thought they were the ugliest things I'd ever seen, but they've grown on me and I find myself fascinated with their soft-sculptural qualities.

I wonder what kind of comments I'd get if I wore these boots for a day. "Interesting..." would only begin to cover it.

Off to figure out how to get my photos to stop being so lazy...

A bientot.

"Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick, Rick!"

Welcome to Rick Owens Week! They always say, write about what you know, and I know this: I love Rick Owens. I love Rick Owens soooo much, I'm giving him a whole week, and that's just because I don't have enough material for a Rick Owens Year.





Rick is one of those designers whom all the Fashion Insiders already know about but anyone I actually know has never heard of. Well THAT will all change with RO Week. I personally discovered Rick several years ago when I spotted his architecturally engineered pieces smooshed into a small corner of some magazine.





The outfits here are classic RO: multi-layered, dust-colored, parts which hug the body and at the same time, parts which flare away. This is the full RO effect, but you could deconstruct the look and pair any of the parts with your favorite jeans and t-shirt.



Yeah, especially the boots, right?

Red fencing mask (face cage?) optional...

And by the way, the shorter jacket is a Helmut Lang piece, a line I also loved before Helmut himself stopped designing it. Note the repeated layering and the subtle gradations of gray. Rick is also know for combining different kinds of materials in the same piece, usually sticking to his ashes & dust palette for a sophisticated effect.

This is not an outfit you are going to see coming and going!


(photos: Vogue)

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

Back to New York! Let the gathering begin. You know the old (prehistoric, actually) concept of Hunting and Gathering? Well I do both. "Equalization of the sexes!", as Geri of Spice Girl fame would say.

Let's start with this lovely boutique EVA, located in the Bowery. Now the Bowery is known (or used to be, it's being gentrified as we speak) more for its bums than its shopping, but EVA had alot of interesting avant-garde items which would only give your credit card a hangover. Among my favorites was this Pamela Love claw bracelet. Pamela Love is a not-yet-widely know accessories designer out of Brooklyn, which my sources tell me is now the place for not yet R & F designers. This piece is so beyond cool as you can see where its talons actually left a small scratch on my wrist. Yes, I heal very fast!

This is the beyond adorable sales associate at EVA, who was very friendly and personable, completely busting to bits all preconceived notions about snooty New York boutique employees. This was a good thing as it made up for the experience at another boutique which I actually sought out and forced my friend to visit with me.

I won't mention any names (other than it is the name of a David Gates (Bread) song which was once cited on American Top 40 as having the shortest title ever for a #1 hit), but IF I'm ever in New York again, I will not waste my time looking for a boutique where they treat you as IF you either are in high school (not worth their time) or have typhoid fever or as IF they are the cool girls in your gym class and you have just tried to butt into their very important discussion on IF they should file their nails or clip them.

Too bad, because my experiences in New York every time I've been there have been of the positive kind. People seem to respond with genuine interest and warmth.

Here is my favorite local sales associate, Abbey, at BCBG (picture taken before I got my new camera, hence the blur). Abbey brings chicitude and friendliness together and takes them to new heights. New York's got nothin' on Abbey!

Plus, Abbey has killer shoes. Literally! I took this shot and so many people commented on how fabulous these shoes were that I went to gather them for myself but was told THEY WERE RECALLED! OMG, who has their shoes recalled? The extremely cool studded heels, apparently, detach. Unexpectedly. Three fashionistas have fallen to their death so far as a direct result of these killer heels. Needless to say, these shoes are no longer for sale.

So I was unable to procure these shoes for myself. The worst thing is, I was still disappointed, which tells you something about me. And I'm not sure it's good...

JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL...

Oh My God! There it is! Thank you, thank you window seat! In and out of the clouds, but definitely real, spiking right out of the face of the earth...Manhattan! I never get tired of this view.


An amazing opportunity came up last week...not only did I get the chance to go to New York City for a 4-day weekend, but it was to meet up with my "Best Friend From 9th Grade" (who shall, for the sake of confidentiality, be known as "Betty" in this post). And if you have ever been a 9th grade girl (and I'd assume anyone reading this has), you will perhaps remember how important and intense your best-friendship is at that stage of this Game We Call Life.

Anyway, we had not seen eachother for decades. How we reconnected is another long story (as they all are with me!), but when we met in La Guardia, it was as if we'd only been away for a year or two.

Only in New York City, we won't have our moms making sure we are home on time, not that we ever did anything like run around at night while saying we were at eachother's houses or hitch-hiking (OMG, did we do THAT? Noooo...) to the next town over for shopping...no, not us.

The Upper East Side...so Upper Crust! I love city views because all I can think about is how many people live there, in all those appartments, the perspective stretching on and on and on, and all those people have their own stories...all those stories, sometimes intersecting, sometimes not. Happy people, sad people, people in love, desperate people...

They will be all around me. I will meet them in the stores, on the street corner, in line for coffee, on the plane. I love hearing their stories.

That's our penthouse, the one with all the trees on the terrace...o.k., not really, but Betty's place was just as good. Had to be, it was in NYC and all we midwesterners know that the streets are paved with gold there.

The 'hood on the UES.

Haven't figured out yet how to rearrange the photos, so I will have to post again on the shopping & art issues...as you know there will be!