bag lady
Fashion Week just wrapped up across the pond, and British store Topshop has an entire section of it’s site devoted to this week’s runway activities.
While runway looks may be outlandish, it’s understood that they are supposed to be. They even said so on Ugly Betty last week, aired during New York’s Fashion Week.
What has really thrown me off recently is this Chanel bag. It’s fashioned to look like a shopping bag, which makes absolutely no sense. Karl Lagerfeld, the man at the helm for Chanel may be regarded as a genius, but paying out the butt for a bag that looks like it’s paper and is going to break is ridiculous.
The only upside to this bag that I see is that maybe it won’t get stolen because a potential thief might think that it’s just a regular shopping bag.
Squiddartha has a cousin!
So I posted a couple weeks back with a pattern to make your own giant squid pillow, with the stipulation that if you make one, you are obligated send pictures (emily.guendelsberger@gmail.com). I was super happy to get an email today from Mandy, who made one as a thank-you present for a friend who loves squid!
Look out, kitty!
I dig the color choices, and thanks for sending pictures, Mandy!
Top Ta-Tas
Last night was the season finale of Top Chef. It’s been an extremely lackluster season with no truly remarkable contestants, which is why there’s been little mention of it here. However, last’s night episode was interesting.
It went down like this: Blah, blah, food, past season stars, drama, OH! A twist!, famous chefs, a fallen souffle, tears, a cranky British guy, boobs, boobs, boobs, the Shmoo wins.
Right now, we’re going to focus on just one aspect of this recap: Boobs. Specifically, guest judge Gail Simmons’.
In this episode, the Food & Wine editor decided that it’d be entirely appropriate to wear an ill-fitting, low-cut dress that showed an, um, excessive amount of cleavage. Or perhaps we’re being prudish here. You be the judge. As one colleague joked, “In this shot, her boobs are so licious, they’re busting onto the screen.”
In Gail’s defense, she did have on a very supportive bra. Which we could see. Nice demi-cup.
And she clearly subscribes to the “up high and close together” rule when purchasing undergarments (as opposed to “lift and separate”).
Gail, we love you, but c’mon. Have a little class.
Special thanks to Paul and DMac for hunting down pictures.
Short people got no reason to live
Jimmy Au, 5'2" and badass, runs a clothing store in Beverly Hills for men under 5'8"
My driver’s license lists me as 5′1″, and I always have to fight the compulsion to append that with “But really, I’m 5′1″ and a half! And a half!” So the fact that this Wall Street Journal article about tailoring for shorter men has in its second sentence a man who qualifies himself as “five-foot-three and a half” made me happy that I’m not the only person over 12 who does this.
However, this article makes me incredibly relieved that I got that second X chromosome along with my, uh, stop-growing-at-age-11 chromosome (from what I recall of 9th-grade biology, I believe that’s it’s technical name). The writer quotes a bunch of depressing statistics (which are admittedly mostly from a pop-science book) about how it’s hard out there for a short dude, including one in which each added inch of height is equal to an extra $30,000 of yearly salary when it comes to getting the ladies.
And if you’re bored at work today, I suggest that you take a look at celebheights.com, which is weirdly enthralling. They also measure by the half-inch.
Highlights (uh, so to speak):
5′1″ Mickey Rooney
5′2″ Prince
5′3″ Seth Green
5′4″ Danzig
And although much has been made of Tom Cruise being shrimpy, he’s not, really; it’s just that he’s claimed in interviews to be taller than it appears he actually is and is married to 5′9″ Katie Holmes, who generally wears heels. He’s claimed to be 5′9″, but most places have him at 5′7″, 5′8″ on a good day. But he’s definitely not 5′2″ like you may have heard!
Oh and BTW: shut up, Randy Newman.
Wall Street Journal: “Power of Proportion for Short Men”
signed, sealed, delivered
Last night, the buzz over Michelle Obama’s dress style was starting to simmer down…sleeveless? in February? At Night? Unheard of!
The occupants of the White House had moved on to the next item on the agenda. The BBC reported that Stevie Wonder was awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize at the White House.
This award was much deserved. Stevie has helped out President Obama quite a bit. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” could be heard at every single Obama event held in the Philadelphia area during the campaign season. The song was played immediately following Obama’s speeches. It added that certain something to the end of the speeches.
As far as state-side news sources, the LA Times has an article up about how the Obamas are more conscious of art than their predecessors.
Continuing with stories from the BBC…I’m a bit of an Anglophile, I blame the semester I spent studying in London. I fell in love with pieces of British culture across the pond and haven’t quite gotten over it.
Goin’ to the Chapel: Flora and fauna
PW associate editor Anastasia Kotsosavas is getting married (to a guy with an equally long, equally Greek last name). In eight months, she’s going to walk down the aisle come hell or high water (or even worse: rain). She’ll be chronicling all her crazy planning experiences here. Donations can be sent to the PW offices.
The time has come to start looking for a florist for the wedding and reception. I found lots of beautiful flowers, but the problem is the pretty ones come with a hefty price tag. I really like calla lilies because of their sleek and clean quality. All the pictures I’ve bookmarked or cut out of magazines include them. However, with prices ranging from $8-$12 a stem (wholesale) I decided to only include them in my own bouquet.
Florists also range in price and each one charges for different services. Some charge delivery fees, some charge rental fees for vases. Prices for typical centerpieces start at $20 for a small simple arrangement and can go as high as $300 for a tall arrangement with specialty flowers.
Riehs Florist in Northern Liberties is fantastic. The staff was super friendly and they were very upfront about what they offer. Everything had a set price, which is really helpful when deciding what you want and what you can afford. Many other florists make up prices as they go along, which complicates things and makes me trust them less.
I’m no expert but I’ve noticed that if the vendor has a flashy office and offers you cappuccino, you’re going to pay out the ass. Most of the reasonably priced (but still high quality) vendors I visited worked in small, unadorned spaces or from home.
After some deliberation, I decided to go with a light purple rose. Pretty but relatively inexpensive. I should complement to the black and white damask tablecloths and add a pop of color.
In other news, I went to Michael’s craft store this week and saw aisles of black, white and purple wedding ideas. They also have these fabulous DIY damask wedding invites that will be a huge money saver. Typical wedding invites can range from $5-$20 each! With a big fat Greek wedding with over 300 guests that’s just not happening.
*Written by Anastasia Kotsosavas
the new cultural appropriation target: Islam!
So a little while ago, as you may recall, Urban Outfitters got into that thing where they sold keffiyehs as ‘freedom scarves’ for $20 and people like Michelle Malkin got all in a tizzy because they were selling ‘terror scarves’ and then they stopped selling them real fast? And they had those T-shirts with the rock-and-roll Palestinian kid with an AK-47 which they also stopped selling real fast? Well, they’ve got themselves in about the same situation again with a new product, but the fallout may be slightly more interesting than Michelle Malkin (who incidentally went to my alma mater) yapping about jihad scarves this time, as it just involves religion, without overtones of things getting blown up.
Maybe they’re courting controversy, or maybe it’s just that none of the buyers checked to see what the translation of the character embossed on the $8 “Leather and rope bracelet” was. (Hint: it’s Allah! This means wearing this bracelet into the bathroom is extremely bad, if you’re an equal-opportunity religious believer!)
Keffiyehs, symbols of unknown translation on jewelry, a bunch of burqua-type hoods on the runways at the most recent fashion week… is Islam about to join Ireland, China, Africa, Jamaica and Kabbalah?
Oh MAN! And… maybe, in the long run, it wouldn’t be too bad for this sort of thing to sweep the frat houses of America, wiping out xenophobia? “It means, strength, Brah!” It’s not the most dignified of ambassadors, but really, neither were cheap Bruce Lee and Bob Marley posters.
Or hey, I could be completely wrong, tell me what you think. Is it this a dumb-yet-probably efficient route to more widespread acceptance of Islam as just another religion we happen to have in America, or is it really ignorant and insulting to commodify the name of anybody’s god, especially if most people wouldn’t even recognize it as such?
On an only slightly related note, you know what I wish would come back into fashion? 12th-century Safavid Islamic tile.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, that would be so sweet. I’m completely serious.
for more further reading, see this article in Heeb, “In Sheik’s Clothing” and the interesting and kind of hilarious commentary about the bracelet at KABOBfest.
Recessionista chic
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. Recessionista chic. How to stay fashionable in a challenging economic climate. A Google search produces over 604,000 results for the term. While I am well aware of the fact that Christian Louboutins are not in the budget, and I’m all for being frugal. I also think there is a point where going for Recessionista chic can go too far.
The point of going to far isn’t cooking at home instead of going out to eat, nor is it rummaging through your bohemian grandmother’s old things to find something fabulous to compliment your outfit. However, it could be this. Shoe clips, to update your shoes without breaking the bank.
I don’t understand. Entire pairs of shoes can be purchased for a lower price than these accessories. What’s the point?
cave sweet cave
Caveland is for sale on eBay, and it’s a pretty sad story. This family built a crazy beautiful house inside a cave Missouri and documented the construction at caveland.us, but with the whole economy thing and all, fear they’re going to be foreclosed upon soon and are trying to sell their home for $300,000 and “start a new adventure,” a quote that made me want to cry. If they can’t sell it by May 1, they say, they will lose their life savings.
There’s hundreds of pictures in the slideshow of how they built the house, and they’re especially interesting because there’s random family and friends running through many if not most; and as the documentation runs over the five years they’ve been working on Caveland, you can kind of watch the kids grow.