In Vermont for the weekend.
Perhaps I will share my most amazing pancake recipe.
Monthly Archives: August 2012
some more summer favorites
Lemlem split scarf
This Lemlem scarf has been one of my favorite accessories all summer. First and foremost Lemlem is a great organization. The company was started by Liya Kebede (famous Ethiopian model) as a way to bolster the Ethiopian textile industry and simultaneously supply us with some great cotton clothes and accessories. The result is fantastic.
The split scarves by Lemlem are great. I have always had some difficulty perfecting the effortless draped scarf look. I’m a smart girl, but obviously not that smart. Well Lemlem’s solution was to sew two narrow scarves together leaving a slit in the middle of them to pop your head through and then wrap the ends around as you see fit. Voila, draping for dummies. It’s genius, I promise.
The cotton is gauzy and light and all of the color combinations are awesome. I highly recommend investing in one of these scarves, especially for the transition into fall.
basic chambray
Chambray has had its rebirth and with good reason. I have been rocking my chambray shirt every way that I can. Paired with soffe shorts for early morning coffee runs to the deli or tucked into pencil skirt for work or as an extra layer over a cute dress for dinner. My chambray shirt is one of the most versatile items in my closet. I am trying to wash it as often as possible to achieve the ultimate broken in comfort that comes with years of wear. This shirt will be under heavy rotation throughout the year. I’m already thinking of how to pair it with burgundy and camel for the fall.
Dayna wedge at Shoemint
Another one of my summertime go to’s has been a pair of platform wedges I got from Shoemint.com. To be honest I am not really sure what Shoemint is or how it works. All I know is I have found some great shoes there and they only cost around $80 (I see now that mine are now on sale for $40, but I did get to wear them all summer so there is a trade off). This pair has been one of my favorites. The multicolored stripe is subtle enough to read as a nude but can also pick up any colors you may pair them with; pale pink jeans, mint green dress, navy blue shorts to name a few. And last but not least, these shoes have proven to be pretty comfortable. Unfortunately due to the espadrille wedge I probably won’t be able to wear them too far into the fall but I feel as though I definitely got $80 worth of wear out of them.
Kain Maren skirt
One of the all time favorite items in my closet is a long white washed silk skirt. I got it maybe 2 years ago and haven’t stopped wearing it (except in the dead of winter – long silk isn’t so great when you are wearing tights in the colder months. The static is crippling, literally, I can’t take more then 3 steps before yards of silk start to twist around my ankles and effectively tie my legs together). Mine is by Kain but there is a great skirt on sale at Shopbop by Rachel Zoe that looks perfect. Long skirts can go in so many directions, comfortable or sexy depending on how you want to play it. In the summer I like to wear a loose white tank, layer a bunch of different long gold necklaces smear of some lip gloss and I’m set. I also love the idea of pairing this with a chunky sweater and some brown boots for the fall. the options abound.
Gallery Girls episode 3
Amy got drunk. Chantal still slouches. Maggie did not have sex with Eli, yet.
Maggie exercises her mathematical skills
Nothing has changed at Eli Klein Gallery, Maggie is still the gallery bitch. Today she gets to count pebbles in some dead bonsai tree pots. Meanwhile Liz goes out for dinner with Eli. He sleazes on for the entirety of the meal about how smart he was to open a gallery at the height of the art market bubble in 2007 and show exclusively bubble dependent Chinese art. He has obviously got some other form of income. Liz doesn’t care about any of it anyway. She eats her gluten free meal. Later when Liz brings Baby Jane aka Jane Holzer, important collector, to the gallery Eli asks Maggie to tend to the dogbowl outside the gallery. Maggie is mortified that Baby Jane sees her perform such a menial task. EARTH TO MAGGIE, Jane Holzer doesn’t know or care who you are, so it doesn’t matter what she sees you doing. When Maggie is introduced to Jane she doesn’t exactly wow her with charm and charisma, instead she stares at the floor and mumbles.
Claudia is in her element
The slouching monotone nymphets of Williamsburg are installing some blue smudgy paintings at End of Century. Claudia looks deeply concerned and harrowed (this is becoming her signature look) and Chantal has her smart girl hipster glasses on, she means business today. Ethan Cook the artist is hailed by Chantal and Claudia as ‘smart and satirical.’ ‘His work is genius…mind bogelling.’ In fact his blue smudgy paintings are so profound that Chantal just doesn’t ‘get it at all,’ despite her smart girl glasses. To be honest his work looks like one of the drippy drapey dresses one of the EOC girls would wear. It turns out they haven’t even set prices for the work or discussed with the artist how they will split any of the unlikely profits. Claudia’s parents should have asked for a business plan before lending $15,000. It’s their own fault if they don’t see a penny of that loan ever returned. It’s gong show there. Later in the episode EOC hosts a trunk show for a jewelry designer. Chantal has the ‘epiphany’ that setting up a sale station might help them make some sales! I hope Claudia’s parents weren’t counting on the $15,000. Kerri shows up with a shirtless man in a kilt and eyeliner. She tries to quote Karl Lagerfeld, something about being able to go uptown and downtown. Kerri is obviously very versatile.
bitches best not step on her drawing
This episode we get to see more of Liz’s personal life. She discusses her reckless past, cocaine and clubbing, like any healthy rich girl would. Liz cooks lobsters at her apartment with her mom (BTW her chihuahua is the same size as the lobsters! I love it!). Liz and her mom talk about Liz’s past and her penchant for escargot as a 3 year old. She also used to play hide and seek on Noguchis and Miros, none of those boring jungle-gyms for this little princess. The art gods never forgot her bratty antics (crawling on sculptures is sacrilege) and someone mysteriously stomps on her collage in class at School of Visual Arts. What goes around comes around Liz, sorry.
Unfortunately Liz’s partying came at the cost of her father’s trust and admiration. They have an awkward dinner. No vacation this year. It’s actually legitimately sad when Liz says that she isn’t her dad’s favorite girl anymore. Liz seems to be in control of her life and on a good track. But agreeing to be on a reality TV show probably didn’t do her any favors in her father’s opinion. I like her the most out of any of the girls on the show. I must mention that Liz is the only one who seems vaguely interested in art for art’s sake and not for the glamour of it. She actually hangs some of her own paintings in her apartment.
the good, the bad and the Angela
Oh and Angela…Angela, Angela, Angela. She’s been living in Brooklyn for 3 years and still isn’t the IT girl. She waitresses and anyone who knows anything, knows that Angela is not meant to serve burgers. She ain’t going to do that anymore. This episode we discover that Angela has bigger aspirations than just being a hipster, she is going to be freelance party photographer in a sexy Clint Eastwood outfit! Hat and poncho included. She scampers off to an ‘arts and music fair’ in DUMBO to take photos of Chantal and Claudia slouch. Angela gleefully cries ‘ it’s free with cool young beautiful people, and I’m here!’ Later she plays out her long time fantasy of having an affair with a middle aged man having a midlife crisis. She goes on a date with Peter, a middle aged yuppie, who wears non-ironic but rather functional eyeglasses. Angela turns her nose up at him for shooting photos in film. She’s a digital only type of gal. Iphones and Gmail accounts need only apply (may I just ask, how do all of these starving hipsters afford their smartphone bills? I think those data plans are being subsidized). Lucky for Peter he’s not Angela’s type. He’ll survive to live another day, if you can call life without a smartphone any kind of life at all. We also discover Angela’s masterplan for becoming the IT GIRL. She’s going to host a party (I think in Miami) and it is going to make her BUZZ WORTHY. Oh and maybe she’ll show some of her party pics to make it artistically relevant. genius.
scavenger hunt!
Art fair time with Kerri and Amy. Sharon Hurowitz brings her two interns to the fair and quickly dispatches them. She obviously doesn’t want them pestering her when she’s with a client. The girls are sent on a mission to find 1 piece of art that they like which will let Sharon know if they have any taste. Amy claims to have an edge because she has been to an art fair before. Kerri says she can prove she has ‘an eye’ out of shear determination and hard work. I love that this segment is treated as a scavenger hunt, as if it’s hard to find art at an art fair. That’s like telling someone to try to find sand at a beach. Art fairs are an assault on the senses, there is so much art it hurts. Kerri and Amy look around. Amy rushes off to Dorian’s, the Upper East Side bastian for preppy alcoholics and frat boys with separation anxiety. At Dorian’s Amy gets wastey faced (finally some one disgraces themselves a bit!) and tells Maggie that she’s rich enough to date a poor guy. I believe she mumbles something about being in the mob. Maggie is just relieved that people from Brooklyn are barred at the door at Dorian’s. Maggie leaves Amy at the bar, sinking her claws into some sweater vest clad boy. The next day Amy and Kerri meet Sharon for art fair show and tell. Amy’s makeup is smeared under her eyes…probably still drunk from Dorian’s. Amy could only find some Damien Hirst print (an obvious choice, Amy is a label whore) at the fair, Sharon is not impressed. Kerri describes some piece made out of trash bags, (so often art seems to be justified by its story not by its quality or content) Sharon approves.
Stay tuned for next week.
Is Angela willing to forgo pants in the name of fame?
Will Amy get laid?
Will Maggie have a nervous break down at work and poison the gallery’s dogbowl?
so hip it hurts
Helmut Newton superwomen
Helmut Newton is one of my favorite photographers.
Helmut Newton, Two Pairs of Legs in Black Stocking, 1979
Originally from Berlin, Newton lived in Australia, France and America. He started working with Vogue as early as the mid 1950s but didn’t really come into recognized success until the 70s with his work for Vogue France. He was married to June Brunell (who later changed her name to Alice Springs). They would work together – she became a renown photographer in her own right. Sadly Newton passed away in 2004.
His work can tend to the commercial but at the same time be very provocative, keeping it satisfyingly shocking.
Newton and models, Helmut Newton, Vogue Studio, 1981
And his subjects are always FIERCE. Through setting, highly contrasted lighting and dramatic poses he creates some of the most powerful photographs you can find.
Helmut Newton, Tied-up Torso, Ramatuelle, 1980
His work often evokes S&M and plays with the role of domination. But the women always seem to be in control. They are an object but I never feel as though they are being objectified. They command their own presence.
Helmut Newton, Elsa Perretti in Halston Bunny Costume, 1975
He rarely shot in studios, preferring real interiors or streetscapes.
Helmut Newton, They’re Coming (naked), 1981
Helmut Newton, They’re Coming!, 1981
A wonderful series of work he did in the 80s was The Naked and the Undressed. These photos comprise some of his best known work.
His work can be really perverse.
Helmut Newton – X-Ray Foot, 1994
Helmut Newton for Vogue France, 1994
Bulgari was rumored to have been a bit upset with this photo…they didn’t like their jewels dismembering a chicken. That cavity is so raunchy and gross.
Helmut Newton, Jenny Capitain, Pension Florian, Berlin, 1977
I find Newton’s work glamorous, sexy and empowering.
Helmut Newton Self Portrait
Baxter is still in the gallery
People seem to find her irresistible.
Baxter
