Had the best weekend... but I'm not going to share it all ;)

You just had to be in the experience, but suffice to say it was a terrific Friday, Saturday, Sunday.... and now rain. I am thrilled for the rain and embrace it full-force!

Love Is a Mix Tape

Life and love, one song at a time. Its amazing what song can do to us. Hearing a particular tune can take us right back into some particular moment like a time machine.


Love is a Mix Tape is written by Rob Sheffield, writer for Rolling Stone and a friend of my friend Ed. The book tells the story of Rob & Renee as chronicled in part through the tapes they made for one another. It takes me back to going through the record bins at Plan 9 in Richmond and Charlottesville.

The music and cultural references are a great time capsule of an amazing era in music and pop culture. Remember putting scotch tape over those holes on the cassette to record over it? Were you alive then? ;)

Ed, who sent me the book before Christmas, also got a little group of us back into making mix tapes for one another--though they are on CD now. Its the best feeling to get that little treat in the mail, rip open the envelope, and take it all in. Much cooler and more intimate than downloading.

LA--Awards Season

There are a couple of months in this town where you hear non-stop talk of "awards season." Its basically like deb balls and parties every night. Stylists are on high-pressure to create some of the most critiqued looks of the year for their clients.

I was actually doing some work on a Sunday night so I was a wee bit late getting to one of my most favorite LA hotels, The Sunset Tower (love the Tower Bar and having brunch poolside on a Sunday), for the Audi pre-Golden Globes party last night hosted by Vampire-loving Anna Paquin and designer vintage king Cameron Silver. Events at the Sunset Tower are always so lovely as the space lends itself to just the right number of people. There were some very sculptural Gianfranco Ferre gowns on display which we admired while sipping Moet. Love Dita's hair up and dress to the floor. Its nice to see a lady in blue instead of black.

Karl knows no age

Press release from Chanel. Amazing that Vanessa Paradis has worked with the brand for so long. I always loved her whistling commercial. Also interesting that one of the most important launches for Chanel this year isn't a handbag or shoe. Its a $30 lipstick. Beauty in numbers.

"Rouge Coco is one of the most important launches from the House of Chanel in 2010," John Galantic, Chanel's U.S. president said to WWD.

Dear Folks,

i just wish we wrote more letters. the excitement of greeting the postman and tearing open an envelope instead of messages in the inbox.

Seeing Things | Johnston Marklee and Walead Beshty

Coming up at the Italian Cultural Institute is the exhibition "Later Layer" with contemporary artist Walead Beshty and architects Johnston Marklee.

From T Magazine, NY Times
By Brooke Hodge

“Later Layer” is on view at the Italian Cultural Institute Jan. 16 to Feb. 28.

Courtesy Johnston Marklee Architects. Models of buildings displayed on a series of plinths at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles are the result of a collaboration between Johnston Marklee Architects and the artist Walead Beshty.

Architecture and art come together in the exhibition “Later Layer,” which opens next week at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Johnston Marklee Architects and the artist Walead Beshty have collaborated on a site-specific installation that transforms the IIC’s gallery and public spaces into a microcosm of a much larger project they are involved with for Italy’s Depart Foundation, a new entity dedicated to contemporary art. Click HERE for the rest of the article.

Home is Where my Heart Is

Its true what Dorothy said. There is no place like home. I am incredibly blessed to have such a loving family in Virginia who keep me balanced and who raised me to never give up and to be a patient and loving person. Sometimes I fail, but I do try. I am also blessed for dear friends on the West Coast that are my family here. Here is my great aunt Dorothy Maine. Her grandmother was English and her grandfather Irish. They were married in London and then traveled to Nova Scotia where my great grandmother was born.

Dorothy Maine wore a size 4.5 shoe. She married a man 8 years her senior, seen here (odd scan), which was a bit of a scandal for the family at first. Look at that moment of adoration, and yes, great style hopefully runs in my mixed up blood.

I love going home and visiting my grandmother. Hearing the stories of our relatives from decades gone by. The stories of my great uncles stepping foot onto French soil to take back the country from the Germans. The stories of her beautiful and stylish sisters. A lot of strong women. Our family that fought in the Civil war to defend Petersburg, where civilians were quite brutalized by the Union army (my great great grandmother swooshed some Yankees out of her home with a broom!) I don't take it for granted that I grew up surrounded by such history, playing on battlefields. This is from Colonial Heights.

The first time I went to Paris, I felt very at home. Many of the same plants and a similar topography as where I grew up. The sky looks quite the same as well. This is the skyline in old town Petersburg.There is also that common bond of rivers running through the land of Paris and where I grew up I think.
The last night in VA, I took pause as my 11 year old brother slept, to enjoy these last moments of him being a child. Bedside are a few things I have given him over the past several years. I don't take for granted that he finds them special. Ox the Ugly Doll, the solar-powered bobbing smiley from Japan, and the rubberized light-up ghost.
We had some fun in the woods with his new Red Rider BB gun, just like A Christmas Story!
Last moments by the tree and harp with one of my dad's paintings in the background.

Calling for Style Fascists. NY Times Op-Ed Guest Columnist Ten for the Next Ten by Bono

This is pretty witty.... I am not a "car" person nor am I a major Bono fan. When friends start talking about whatever Mercedes class, xyx edition whatever car, and all that, I have no idea. But....I do like a sexy ride in the sense of a smart and interesting design. I think the Prius could have been a lot sexier, instead of reminding me of a hand-held vacuum. Maybe I am a car person in the sense that a muscle car or a boxy vintage car really strikes my fancy. The romanticized idea of the great American road trip. This is what lead me to my choice in a Mini. But I digress. Any op-ed that wishes for a style fascist gets a gold star by me.

Return of the Automobile as a Sexual Object

How is it that the country that made us all fall in love with the automobile has failed, with only a few exceptions, to produce a single family sedan with the style and humor and grace of the cars produced in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s? Put aside the question of whether those models were male (as in longer, lower and wider, Dr. Freud) or female (as in fender skirts, curvy belt lines and, of course, headlights). Either way, they all had sex appeal. (In Ireland in the ’70s, it was the E-Type Jag that made sense of puberty.) Today, however, we have the mundanity of our marriage to the minivan and the S.U.V. and long-term relationships with midsize cars that are, forgive me, a little heavy in the rear cargo hold.

Are aerodynamics to blame? Economics? Or that most American of inventions, design by committee? It hurts me to say this about democracy (and I know because my band is one), but rarely does majority rule produce something of beauty.

That’s why the Obama administration — while it still holds the keys to the big automakers — ought to put some style fascists into the mix: the genius of Marc Newson ... Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive from Apple ... Frank Gehry, the architect, and Jeff Koons, the artist. Put the great industrial designers in the front seat, right along with sound financial stewardship ... the greener, the cleaner, the meaner on fossil fuels, the sexier for me. Check out the Tesla or the Fisker Karma car, designed by the same team that gave the world the Aston Martin.

Read the rest here

So pretty.....

Vintage silver lame thread flapper shoes from the 1920s.

Crushing on Humphrey....

Instead of socializing this evening, I opted to sing at home, watch Casablanca, and get some work done.

Bogart is so captivating. The crisp white jacket, those puppy dog eyes, his devil may care attitude, and that lover's heart..........

Morrocan sugar in my lavendar Earl Grey tea

Very poetic....

The pretty English bone china tea cup and saucer belonged to my very stylish Aunt Hazel. It was then passed down to my dear Aunt Leslie (she loved violets and pansies), and now to me. Its a busy day, but I had to take this moment to enjoy....and pay homage to these Steel Magnolias.

The tea is superbly beautiful and is from Chado Tea room, a gift from a new friend Liberty. (More on this young designer soon.) The sugar was given to me by sweet Zainab from a favorite lunch hideaway called the Casbah in Sunset Junction.

JC REPORT: Ohne Titel Trunk Show at Zainab

Los Angeles was recently graced with a visit from the creative minds behind Ohne Titel, Flora and Alexa.

Thank you Margaret Mitchell

Crestfallen, she stops and then resourcefully and determinedly finds her true direction. She was never the type to admit defeat. Ghost-like voices from her past remind her of the source of her strength in the soil of Tara. She hears her father Gerald: "Land's the only thing that matters, it's the only thing that lasts." Ashley: "Something you love better than me, though you may not know it. Tara." And Rhett: "It's from this you get your strength, the red earth of Tara." Each speech is repeated with increasing tempo and volume.


Margaret Mitchell, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Gone With the Wind. (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949)

Nice scarf

The latest project: Leonardo da Vinci & Bill Viola

Its been days of little sleep, great espresso, and impassioned meetings with fantastic Italians about this incredible exhibition which opens to the public on December 3rd. This is a RARE opportunity to be close to Leonardo's work in a very intimate setting alongside the contemporary video work of Bill Viola. A very smart and interesting contrast.

There is very much an Italian connection right now. I left the Istituto Italiano di Cultura this afternoon where we were meeting about the opening event, and then Fedexed a great deal of beautiful clothing samples from my designers to Vogue Italia for another shoot with Steven Meisel.

Detail from Leonardo da Vinci's "The Angel in the Flesh" Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
The Last Angel, Bill Viola, 2002, video, 9:00 min, Studio Bill Viola.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA— November, 25, 2009—The controversial drawing the “Angel in the Flesh” (c. 1513-1515), discovered in1990, will appear in its unique splendor at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Institute) of Los Angeles December 3-12, 2009. It is a truly historical moment as this is the first time ever that the “Angel in the Flesh” (formerly in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle) will be shown on the West coast before it returns to Europe. Under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic of Italy and organized in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Los Angeles, Leonardo da Vinci and Bill Viola’s exhibition concludes the 9th Italian Language Week dedicated to Arts, Science and Technology.

Drawn with black chalk on rough, blue paper, like many of Leonardo's late anatomy studies in Windsor, the “Angel in the Flesh” is a masterpiece which was the object of scrupulous studies and interpretations by major art historians, psychologists and psychoanalysts.

Also part of the two-week exhibition is Leonardo’s “Theatre Sheet” (c. 1506-1508, from the “Codex Atlanticus”), which includes its two fragments, cut out of it in the late sixteenth century, now next to each other at last. “Theatre Sheet” shows Leonardo as a master in theatrical arts, set design and music.

Installed alongside Leonardo’s works at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles will be “The Last Angel” (2002) a work featuring slow motion imagery of an angelic figure in water by celebrated video artist Bill Viola, who is also part of MOCA’s new 30th Anniversary exhibition. Starting in the early 1990s Viola created a series of pieces involving figures plunging into and emerging out of a shadowy underwater realm. Representing the threshold between birth and death, the undulating surface of the water and its reflective properties were transformed into a moving image canvas where time and space were inverted and reversed. “The Last Angel” is the final work in this series. It is kindly lent to the exhibition by Bill Viola Studio.

The exhibition is free and open to the public December 3-12, 2009 10AM-6PM daily.
Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles 1023 Hilgard Avenue (Westwood) Los Angeles, CA 90024

MOCA GALA RAISES OVER 3.5 MILLION

The handsome and talented Francesco Vezzoli embroiders while Lady Gaga sings. I was quite impressed by her vocals and performance and admit that I knew very little of her actual talent prior to the gala....

Its been a crazy, busy week, month, fall....

Head spinning like a dream. Still just a little girl from Virginia taking it all in. Carine Roitfeld, my fashion heroine and real woman of all time looked amazing @ the MOCA gala, not surprisingly. Ridley Scott--so cool to talk to. Gore Vidal?! Brad & Angie is all most of the press have talked about..... To me, most exciting is that everyone came to support my favorite Los Angeles museum. The cultural renaissance of LA is growing strong! Larry Gagosian won the pretty in pink Steinway piano painted by Damien Hirst with beautiful butterflies for a cool $450,000.
Growing up as a ballerina, it was a beautiful thing to see the Bolshoi ballet (who almost didn't make it thanks to our American red tape).

Francesco Vezzoli had a hand in EVERY detail of the evening down to the table decor and settings. I love his point of view...It is the concept to utmost attention to detail which truly sets the artist apart.

That week was a whirlwind of Nadine Johnson helmed events and I haven't caught up to myself since. At the Prada party to launch Miuccia's new book, they transformed the entire store into a library. No merchandise....Absolutley fantastic with Ms. Prada there holding court wearing the most lovely genuine smile. The next day was the 30th Anniversary of MOCA Gala fundraiser and the afterparty at the enoromous new Prism gallery hosted by Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, a very pretty pregnant Dasha Zhukova and POP magazine amongst others.

Sartorial style and handsome in tuxedos.. Ezra & Andrew.

Check out dear Rose Apodaca's piece on the MOCA Gala after party.... and ArtForum's post on the gala...

Most beautiful and sincerest of thanks to Karyn Kohl and Adam Gross and Jennifer Arcenaux from MOCA!

Me, Shawn & Jeremy. Shawn rocked the most gorgeous family heirloom pendant.... Jeremy wore a beautiful Gucci suit Tom Ford for made him for his sister's wedding years ago...later, the two were reunited @ the after party @ Prism gallery.

Also thanks to Shawn & Jeremy for being lovely escorts for the evening and for zipping me into the gorgeous vintage Azzaro dress from Cerre and tying up the silver Lutz belt from Zainab. Impossible to get dressed on my own that night!

Sleek hair, Egyptian eyes Lanvin dress. Karyn Kohl and Happy House @ MOCA cutie Tracy Fong.

All pics by Shawn K & Karyn Kohl.

"All things are ready if our minds be so."--Shakespeare

Serendipity.

Vogue Italia loves LA Designers

Costume Dept. "Grand Floral" leggings, left. Laura Kranitz headpiece, right.

Costume Dept. white lace leggings. Laura Kranitz headpiece. The lighting in this shot...the beautiful red and contrast of those white lace leggings. Kill me with joy ;)

October Vogue Italia was near impossible to find for some reason. But we kept stalking her, we had to find her. I had a search team. And viola, here she is with 2 of our LA loveys: accessories designer Laura Kranitz and women's/unisexy Costume Dept. We've all been waiting for 4 months to see how this shoot came together and what made it through to final edit. Also some great shots with Jeremy Scott--especially loving the mouse hands coat. Photographed by Steven Meisel. Styled by the incredible Lori Goldstein.

You think you know LA fashion? This is it people, and so much more to come!

She ran

She ran through the wood until she reached a clearing. There, she saw how beautiful the flowers were, standing upright and nodding their heads at her. All at once a brightly colored flower moved & flew away. "I did not know that flowers flew," she said. And there was no one there to tell her it was not a flower, but a butterfly.

ZAINAB toasts Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Nominee OHNE TITEL

Shortly we are off to the Chateau Marmont for the Vogue/CFDA tea for the Fashion Fund nominees.

Last night, we had a fantastic and perfectly curated soiree for the launch of the new store front space for Zainab Sumu's new store, ZAINAB and a Spring 2010 trunk show & celebration for Alexa Adams and Flora Gil of OHNE TITEL for their Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Nomination.

Zainab previously operated out of a gorgeous 1920's old Hollywood building by appointment only. This is her new venture onto Melrose, just across La Brea from the delicious M Cafe.
Zainab has the "eye" and the touch. A completely terrific point of view. Ohne Titel are exclusive to Zainab in LA. What I love about Ohne Titel is the amazing attention to detail. The fabrics are beyond. You must see them, feel, them, and try them on to fully understand. The reverse side of the pieces are as amazing as the outside.

My favorite French woman, Flavie Webster of Cerre, me, Alex & Flora of Ohne Titel in Comme Des Garcons & Ohne Titel respectively. They were straight off the plane, dashed to the Sunset Tower, and into the party. Amazingly creative women and incredibly fun! Their partnership--best friends, a Libra & an Aquarius.

This is Jerome Rousseau. A neighbor and darling gentleman who makes truly beautiful shoes, now available at Zainab.

Lips! Odilon designer Stacey Clark wears a black kiss while friend Natalie wears a striking shade of red.

The stunning Zainab & me. Zainab wears Ohne Titel Spring 2010 and Fall 09 Ohne Titel shoes with Jenni Kayne gloves. I wear Ohne Titel Spring 2010 with those now classic YSL booties, Julia Clancey hand drape and AND_i necklaces.

Izze sparkling juice (no added sugars!) and Pearl vodka. The perfect combination!
All photos by DemonicaPhoto.com

Zainab & the ever-friendly and handsome retail wonderkid & philanthropist Shamus.

Designer Jasmin Shokrian admires the beautiful Natalia Brilli French accessories.

Flavie & Clay of Cerre on Las Palmas. A MUST visit boutique of their beautiful leather collection and vintage finds.
To you from Paris. Gentlemen sample Histoires de Parfums.