Vamos a Mexico

You didn't forget about Fashion Week in Mexico City did you? In case you did, here are a few pieces from Carlos Temores, one of my favorite designers, who showed an edgy monochromatic line accented by plastic handbags and colorful helmets:

My lemons are bigger than yours

I consider myself very lucky to have a terrace in the city that is big enough to house Richard Schultz 1966 lounge chairs and an upstairs bright enough to nurture an extraordinarily fecund and fragrant lemon tree.

Yes, that really is a lemon from my tree in the picture, it is gigantic, and the tiny little plant currently bears 7 more lemons!!! Its immature branches cannot tolerate the weight of the fruit, so I have to prop each of them up with silly contraptions.

As much as I appreciate and love my little plant and my terrace, they pale....tremendously....in comparison to this Nolita rooftop ....er.... forest. My lemon tree suddenly feels very inept.






Chris and Lisa Goode's penthouse apartment atop a building in New York City's Little Italy is a gardener's dream. They started their sustainable green roof project four years ago, acting as their own general contractors and managing the hoisting of 5-ton soil bags by crane onto the roof, among other equally daunting tasks. I'd like to impress upon you the grandiosity of this outdoor place by giving you a few facts from the NY Mag article- It houses a honey-producing bee hive, monarch butterflies migrate through It, AND the little girl that lives there rides her tricycle on Its roof lawn and picks berries for her morning cereal from Its in-house berry bushes. OK, now just look at the pictures and gasp.


The modern penthouse pavilion is surrounded by Hornbeam trees and acanthus along the edge, a large black locust tree in the corner and a lemon tree on the deck.


"A bird’s-eye view, facing west, of the green roof, planted with succulents, sedums, and delospermas, atop the pavilion, as well as the lawn and decking of the pavilion below."


Through the glass is a greenhouse which harbors warm-weather plants like lemon and banana trees. This year, they ate bananas from their own tree!!!!


"The north-facing kitchen looks over a garden that includes squash, cherries, peaches, persimmons, fava beans, “every herb known to man,” and an espaliered apple tree."


Wildflowers, which vary by season.


Five egg-laying chickens roam one level below the wildflowers (yes, there are TWO levels of terrace)

Come Over

The expectation was palpable in the dense air of the Rock & Roll Hotel last night, palpable and excitedly progressing in intensity through 3 opening acts.

I was certainly not the only one who was there to see US Royalty.


If I had been a stranger to the looks of the headlining band I would've still been able to pick them out of a band line up - not so much because they looked like US royalty, but because they looked hmmm... polished - rock & roll, clean, stylish, sexy, confident type of polished. Not that this imparts any merit to their musical talent, but I personally get a little extra enjoyment from seeing a good-looking set of guys singing to me. That and their incredible presence on stage, specially John Thornley's, the lead singer, who honestly could be singing about cleaning products and it wouldn't matter because I wouldn't be able to look away, his warbling, 60s-music-idol voice won't let me. I have seen a fair amount of bands play live but only a few of them have had this type of magic onstage, and it's so exciting to see it materialize and permeate the crowd song after song. And for me, the blues impregnated sounds really really really seal the deal.

If you missed them, see their live sessions at Brightest Young Things

Blocks and Lines

I wonder if we are going to experience a post-war artistic movement like Paris did in the 1920s. Ok, maybe not, at least we can be inspired by the fruits of the innovation that took place in those fertile days - Piet Mondrian and his un-confoundable grid paintings are one of the first ones to come to mind - probably because the "Mondrian Day Dress" that Yves Saint Laurent created several decades later is one of my favorite designs of his ever.





There's something so simply genius about this dress, maybe it's the asymmetrical symmetry of the shift shape and the lines, maybe it's the simplicity of its form, maybe the crispness of the primary colors, maybe it's the way he camouflaged the shaping in the grid of the seams. Whatever it is, it's perfect.

























Probably due to that timeless perfection, color-block designs like YSL's seem to be part of everyone's collections - so many in fact that I had to sort them out in my head - these are my favorites:


Clockwise from top left with links: Vivre color block lighters, Chloe Ines clutch, Marc Jacobs Mary-Janes, Topshop color block silk playsuit, Kara Ross Mondrian clutch, Emilio Pucci skirt, Pierre hardy heels, Forever 21 geometric dress, Mint Jodi Arnold color block dress, Jonathan Saunders Somerby dress, Herve Leger color block bandage dress, Nike Mondrian sneakers.


Even my closet has recent color-blocked additions - my favorite is this dress here that needed a little modifying since it was 7 inches longer and had terrible purple sleeves - not quite a Mondrian day dress, but it conveys the sentiment....

Nails Pencils Zippers

Jennifer Maestre is a South African born artist and sculptor who creates fascinating little creatures out of unpredictable materials that make me very nervous - they remind me of underwater creatures with thousands of teeth and their silhouette and texture give me the impression that they are going to come to life any second. Yes, I am also afraid of all types of insects.


My fear is actually sanctioned since her sculptures were inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin and she states that "Paradox and surprise are integral in her choice of materials" - which to me translates to "Beware, they may look like they're inanimate objects, but they will jump up at you unannounced."

Doesn't stop me from staring at them and wanting to acquire the scariest one as my new pet. Maybe for now I'll just buy one of her pencil pins.


My Box


Persephone


Dreaming


Materialize


Seethe


Springtime Tall Tale

Broken Spikes

The Fashion Rocks Issue from a couple months ago was saturated with delicious darkness - and fittingly, the name of the spread I scanned below is titled Heart of Darkness. Shot, also very fittingly, by the king of depressingly wonderful images, Steven Klein.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about look two on page two - it's so perfect - the vampire pale skin, the black hair, the evil bangs, that perfect Luella dress, the goth Burberry Prorsum necklace, I want the whole thing. I think subconsciously for the last couple months since I saw it all my purchases have been geared to make me look like that....





My anomalous shopping trend mentioned above was propelled further when I saw the Fall 2008 Lookbook from Topshop. In typical Topshop fashion, none of the items I really loved were available in my size, or at all, so I have been forced to scour more internets in search of lace, destruction, leather, spikes, and any vampire-like object.



This is my compilation thus far, aren't those Topshop Unique boots absolute perfection GRRRR they're sold out!!! The item on the bottom right is a corset bag!! Genius!


Clockwise from top left: Lace corset dress, Silver spike necklace, skirt, spiked bracelet, lace-up corset , shoulder corset bag, vest, ripped jeans, tuxedo jacket.

What's that?

These pictures were taken right after the Listopad brunch party in Adams Morgan. The TPWP photographer took them unbeknown to us who were too busy chatting about the appearance and disappearance of stores in the neighborhood. I like how they capture the energy of my friends.

Vivienne Westwood in Washington DC

Oh my.... Muleh is bringing the Spring 2009 Anglomania collection for a trunk show preview and pre-order to the store, yes, the entire thing, for the first time ever in DC. We loved last season's Anglomania clothes (the red dotted dress and worthmore jacket) when we first saw them at Muleh so much that we spent an entire afternoon in the store sitting around in them.

In addition to the clothes, Vivienne's VP and NY representative will be at the preview, and that's not all, Vivienne is loaning Muleh the wedding dress Carrie wore in Sex & The City!!!!

I'm not going to miss it, or the champagne - Thursday October 23 from 5-8 pm.
Muleh
1831 14th Street
Washington DC
202.667.3440


In case you didn't see the Spring/Summer 2009 Anglomania Runway show in Berlin earlier this year, here are some of my favorites, I can't wait to see them in person!!!!!!







Details

Surface Alive

I have a small obsession with three-dimensional forms created from one-dimensional materials - I posted about Tomas Rivas before and his full-figured rosettes and columns carved onto walls and created from the drywall's paper liner and gypsum plaster. I was delighted to find another example of this type of art displayed on furniture and other pieces by Helen Amy Murray. She uses a sculpting and cutting method called "Shoal" to create three-dimensional patterns and objects from leather and other fabrics. Through this process, she is able to create rich superficies and impart movement and fluidity to an otherwise stale surface.

The detail and intricacy of her work is stunning - Here are some of my favorite pieces

Victorian Tub Chair in Leather


Detail


Retro Swivel Chair with "Fish Scales" in Leather


Detail


Damask Floral Bespoke Wall Covering in Cashmere and Wool


Various detail shots of a birds and flowers art piece in silk and leather, other furniture pieces and of printed and woven fabrics