Top Ten Life Moment

There are special places that one stumbles upon that stir something deep inside. When it is a beautiful night and there are people playing guitar on their stoop in the twilight, or an all day brunch fest on the cute street side cafe with good people watching, sometimes it can be Mid Summer Swing at Lincoln Center. The energy is better than good, everything feels calm, relaxed and happy. Charley and I were lucky enough to find ourselves in one such moment while in Copenhagen.Welcome to Nyhavn! A canal runs into the city for a length of space to allow beautiful tall ships to dock, inspiring envy and fantasy lives in which one lives on a boat and travels to all the Scandinavian countries in the summer, collecting fun people to travel with, regional booze to make late night cocktails to share with your new travel partners as they regale you with tales of far away lands. Like I said, fantasy life.... Anyways- the cobble stone street is flanked by this canal on one side, and a series of adorable restaurants and cafes on the other. All the outdoor seating is ready, even though it is still a bit cold for that. They have their heaters going and a blanket for each chair so if one chooses to sit outside, and one will choose to sit outside, one is warm and comfortable.
We rode down the street on our bikes and were immediately pulled into the scene. We wanted to drink! by the canal! and then we noticed that these cafes were not our only option! Yes! We could just pick up a six-pack and drink on the canal. Classy! Drinking outside is totes legal in Denmark.
Sitting down with our first beer on the side of the canal with loads of attractive, well dressed people walking up and down the street perfect for people watching, tall boats to our backs, and tall, attractive men to our left and right Charley turned to me and simply said "Nora, I think this is a top ten life moment. Right here, right now." I couldn't have agreed more.When the sun is shining in Copenhagen, everyone is happy!
We let go of life stresses, work, impending future life choices, and just were in the moment people. Who ate beers for lunch. I was decidedly, shall we say, drunk with happiness and also maybe regular drunk when we found our way back to our bikes. Sad to be leaving the canal, but happy to have spent the last hour there we mounted our trusty steeds and headed back to the apartment. Little did we know our plan was to be foiled! By a gallery opening! With more beer!
We rode past the gallery on our bikes, decided spur of the moment that we probably needed to go and performed a quick U-turn.
Aren't the Danes so cute. They hang out in galleries on the floor.
This painting below is a perfect representation of Charley and I. We're in a relationship.
Top Ten Life Moment, brought to you by-
Travel
Denmark
Attractive people (men)
BEER
Boats
Historic Architecture
Bike Riding
AND GOOD COMPANY (Charley, of course!)

Perry Ellis

And to end my fashion week coverage- Perry Ellis. Nothing stunning, but I'm into the clothes. Or the models. Or like the music, whatever.

Since Fashion Week is quick appropaching...

... and I still haven't gotten all my stuff about last fashion week up because I'm a lame-a-tron and also tres busy. The thing that has been taking up all my hours? Oh, I'll share in due time because I'm oh so excited about it.

I was also excited about the Betsey Show because it was bicycle themed and I love me a bike. The end of the show featured a collection that was about what one should wear for New Years Eve. They probably wouldn't really work with a bike but I'm not going to be picky.

RIGHT? How much fun is that collection? And then in typical over the top Betsey Johnson fashion (pun!) she went kuh-razy with the matching outfits at the end and also did her cartwheels as per usual. Yeah- a grandma who cartwheels. No big.

I mean is it high art, and sophisticated? Does any one wear all yellow checker cab outfits? No, but who the fuck cares, hey?

Why don't we do it in the road?

A little teaser...

Vivian Tam

Is there any place cooler to watch a show than from backstage? Chloe even let me put on a headset to listen to how exactly the shows are coordinated. The girls stand in line- waiting, chatting, being (omg) real people with personalities, then BAM they hit the corner and seriousface comes on. Every once and a while they would make a silly face at us as they came off the runway, or comment on something they did while they were strutting their stuff as they ran by, already getting their clothes yanked off by a wrangler. The second they finish they are running around getting into their next look. Super cool to see the inner workings, hear the commentary (because the people coordinating the shows, well they are humans too), and just get dazzled by the fashun.

Backstage Shenanigans

Chloe knows I geek out when I get to see what goes on back stage. So she takes me. And I geek out.

I got to watch them testing out the HUGE VIDEO WALL. The back was just tons of cables coming out. Because I've worked in video before, I know there was a rhyme and reason to it, but it looked absolutely outta whack. I really liked seeing this super non-fashion dad on the screen.
There are secret tunnels that run all over the place. Chloe knows to make my little heart go pitter patter, all she has to do is text me "Lets meet by the tunnel." Usually she is running around like a cray cray because she has work to do, but she let me take a FIERCE FASHION POSE to satisfy my goofiness. Hopefully Tyra would approve of my finding the light.

ADAM

The show was phenomenal. The devil was in the details, because the show was very simple. If I remember correctly almost all the songs were Sleigh Bells, opening with this song: http://tinysong.com/v950 which you should probably listen to while reading the post as it gives the proper mood and delicately balances between light, airy and girly, and heavy and grownup.
The color story hung out mostly in the beige/white/light colors arena which is why this dress made such an impact. Hello red. Simple, charming, and mischievous running parallel.

This man knows about embellishments and really uses them to pump up the volume in a subtle way while still making an impact and strengthening the storytelling in the collection.
Like I said before- nothing ground breaking or brand spanking new, just a lovely collection that I would want every single piece from. It was well-rounded, cohesive, and just luxe enough. It showed a ranged from great knits and casual separates to fantastic night on the town looks, and kept the surprises staggered throughout.Oh hey guys...
high five?

C'mon, you can't leave Mr. Lippes hangin'!

Fashion Week- ADAM pt 1

Man oh man alive did I drop the ball with hollering at the tents in any sort of timely manner. I will say that between the new job, and uhhhh life (?) I've been struggling to keep it all up. But I've been getting used to the schedule and I'm looking forward to keeping this a-going.

So did you guys totally freak out at the floating marble block over the entrance? It was soo well done. It lessened my apprehension about the new location (I don't like change). My little darling Chloe called me up to stop by check out the ADAM show.

She was allz like -Hey I ain't no model, don't take my damn photo. But I did because she's so darn ADORABLE.
ADAM just makes really beautiful clothes. Are they crazy off the wall? Are they twenty colors and oversized silhouettes? Nope. But do I lust after them? Are embellishments used thoughtfully? Are the proportions perfect? Yup. Its clear that Adam has a point of view, and its to create really top notch clothing for ladies.
I love the backstage craziness. The handlers took some time making sure this girl's shoes worked correctly.

I like to think these are someone's moms helping add last minute extra notches to the shoe's buckles. Remember when I said fashion is so not glamourous? This is the personification of that. Its hard work and crouching behind a trash bin trying to get one more hole- using a tired, old leather punch- on a fabulous pair of shoes.

I love seeing the designers talk about their collections. Sometimes designers have a lot of say and are really hands on with their collections, and sometimes they just provide more a face for the collection and might approve things that go through the system. Now I have no authority to say either way, I've never been to the ADAM studio, but it appears to me that Mr. Lippes is really part of the discussion, which makes sense considering his history- holding the title of creative director at one of my absolute favorites, Oscar de la Renta.
The front of house was super packed as to be expected.
I watched the show from the sound booth, which made be feel a little bit cool. In my head I pretended I was an important person overseeing the production. Basically I sat up a little bit straighter...

Show coverage next post!

That time that Kanye made a Matthew Barney film.

I'd never thought I'd say Degas and Kanye have a few things in common...

Oh yes- I love this a lot-

Things of note:

Michael Jackson bizzare-o parade

Feather crotch

"Do you know your she's a bird?"

"No I never noticed that."

My favorite part- when Kanye remixes Power and she dances and then it cuts to the little boy in red running across the field.

This is really what people should be doing. Yes, its funny because its Kanye and he's a silly person, but damn at least he is making some fucking art son.

Tie Dying

Rebecca is one of those fantastic ladies who while sometimes takes a wild ride on the train to crazy town, most of the time its a good kind of crazy. She's always making. She's a maker of things. If you want to feel inspired, watch her finger some new fabric she's just bought, or pull out plastic baggies filled with different kinds of beads and talk about its potential, her plans for its future. The best part is unlike most, she follows through. If you stop by a few weeks later, you can see the finished product, a gorgeous skirt, or a stunning necklace. There is no bullshitting in Reboc's world.
She decided that the latest thing of interest, besides learning French (she's in Paris right now, don't you know? Avoir l'amusement ? Tu me manques! Et dites bonjour a Agathe pour moi!), is learning how to tie dye. She invited her "besties" over for a day of fun in the sun and Avatar-blue hands.
When I got on the roof I was, admittedly, a few minutes (or an hour) late. But this is how I roll. Everyone was already tying up their tee shirts and pillow cases into little cloth sculptures in order to block the dye and control the pattern. We soaked them in a bath to prepare them for dying.
There were two kinds of dying to try out:
Tom here is doing an indigo bath, which I didn't realize wasn't just dying something blue. I learned that it actually needs to oxidize in order to achieve the correct color. When placing your garment in the bucket to dye it cannot be moved because that will introduce air into the mixture and oxidize the bath. It also cannot touch the bottom because some of the chemicals will have settled to the bottom and I guess its better to leave them undisturbed.
After the garment comes out of the indigo bath we laid them out to dry on this plastic sheeting. The pieces actually came out this awesome neon green and then we WATCHED them turn blue as the air activated the indigo. HOW COOL IS THAT?! Some of us lamented that we wished we could hold on to that great green color to which Rebecca replied "Its indigo, get over it!"
Jon tried out the other kind of dying, which is your more garden variety, sleep away camp style tie dye. We had a reddish purpleish and a yellow to play around with.
While we waited for our clothes to accept the dyes the sky put on a magnificent show for us.
And one trip to the laundromat later, we were Tie Dye Champions!
Oh yeah, I cut my hair. Its actually been short for a while, and check it, there's some pink in there too.
All in all this was a most fun day of making and hanging and drinking beers- and summer's not quite over so GET ON IT!

She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!

Oh fashion week- you're just a few measly weeks away. Oh yes, how I miss you, like long distance lovers waiting to be reunited, I stare at your pictures online and sometimes feel butterflies in my stomach, tingling in anticipation.
To tide me over until we meet, so soon, so soon- the Custo Barcelona finale- a video.


I know, my posts have been video heavy lately. Whaddya think? I'm kinda into it, but maybe there's a downside?
Lemme know!

The Cooper Hewitt Shop

Me and the company wanted to take the intern to the Cooper Hewitt to check out the Design Triennial. Of course due to poor planning on our part, we forgot to check what time it closed. When we got there 20 bucks a person for only a half hour just didn't seem to make sense. But it wasn't a total waste of time, the shop was open for us to peruse, for free! Brian, the curator? buyer? finder? come on my selector? for the store always makes good choices. It was hard to photograph my favorites because they were often under glass.
I totally dug these watch shaped wrist bands. Playful and sweet. I would like to wear them all at once, two for each arm.
These necklaces also charmed me. A much better version for ladies than the patronizing all-pink tool sets for ladies the Home Depot sells. Though I could see a hunky, hip man in a v-neck shirt wearing the saw one...
And these are just weird. There is a part of me that wants to buy a set and mail it to John Waters.

MOMO

Last Thursday I headed over to the Invisible Dog gallery to check out the work of MOMO, or, as he was named, Maurice Maréchal. I've walked by the Invisible Dog gallery plenty of times, but this was the first time I ever went inside.
It was really a phenomenal space, and as with most things that appeal to my aesthetic preferences it was cleaned up just enough to have people and art inside- but the bones of what it used to be, the beautiful patina of years of use as a factory was still ever present. What a perfect host for art! I have a whole post planned on the Invisible Dog, so for right now- on to zee art!
There was framed work on every starkly painted wall. The tactile quality of the work sang inside the Invisible Dog's bare bones post-factory interior- thick gobs of paint created undulating paintscapes upon old ledger pages and found objects like sheets of old, oil stained butcher paper and tree leaves preserved by a glossy shellac found homes on the page. The work was emotional, textured, joyous and painful all at once, it had history and told a story. And this very affecting work was mostly housed in these... generic... frames. I don't think the work was diminished because of this, but I think the pieces could have been enhanced with a different approach. I guess I came away thinking the two were a bit incongruous.
Also- I hate frames in general...
Part of what made me want to stay with each piece was the level of detail within the work.
This was in her fore arm(sorry its sideways), and this-
on her other arm.
My favorite thing in the whole gallery was MOMO's sketch book. I could have spent the whole time just loving the book. I wanted to take photos of every page, but had to restrict myself.
And again he had beautiful details hidden in the work. But I could get up close and inspect it.
I found this character doing his angry rain dance on this page-
There were also pages in the old ledger book that appealed to my interests in fashion. Being ever the girly girl I liked these explorations in lace-
And the dip dyed effect gave such a nice ombre to this neck piece-
I waited for almost two hours in this really very hot gallery for Michel Gondry to show up and kick out the jamz (which may or may not have been my impetus to go in the first place). While close to 8 there was still no sign of him- I bounced out because my legs had gotten so sweaty that they effortlessly slid against each other as though I was in a pool. NOT CUTE!
Over all- great show! I can't wait to check out what else the Invisible Dog has to offer.