thoughts are more clear and great ideas often come when i am alone underwater or lying quietly in the sun. - jessica trent

California Design Biennial Opens this Weekend!

I am excited to see the work of all of the amazing designers who have been selected to be in the California Design Biennial at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, which opens this weekend. Its an honor to be on the host committee for the opening alongside so many amazing people I respect, especially as your Virginia/LA Steel Magnolia has only been living in this big city for 3 years.

The LA Times Booth Moore did a great preview on the fashion portion of the exhibition, and I truly look forward to seeing the other categories. The fashion category is curated by the ever so lovely and brilliant Rose Apodaca.

From the press release:

The curators, all design experts, will place the work in a context for the viewer that facilitates a deeper and richer understanding of the design that surrounds them every day. Curators include Louise Sandhaus, graphic designer and California Institute of the Arts professor; Rose Apodaca, pop culture and fashion journalist, and former Women’s Wear Daily West Coast Bureau Chief; Stewart Reed, head of Transportation Design at Art Center College of Design; Frances Anderton, Los Angeles Dwell editor and host of KCRW's DnA: Design and Architecture; and Alissa Walker, freelance design journalist for publications such as Good, Fast Company, and Core77.

I encourage you to come!

Saturday, July 17, 2010, 7:00 – 10:00 pm
Opening Reception for California Design Biennial: Action/Reaction
$5 admission, Free for PMCA Members

Summertime sartorial style ca. 1895

Paul Gauguin playing the harmonium in Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha's studio in Paris, 1895. Mucha befriended Gauguin when he was broke, after returning from his first trip to Tahiti, and offered him space in his studio where the two worked on their art, each in their own corner. That is what friends are for!

What fun times this must have been for them both! I love this idea of the two of them with such different styles, working in the same space. I can imagine the conversations. I bet they had endless quantities of champagne on hand from one of Mucha's most known commercial works, seen below.

And then it seems they indeed had some things in common. A very young girlfriend. And who did design that Medée poster? Hmm... Scandals and lover's quarrels in the art world are certainly nothing new.

I have so much to do right now, and I should be sleeping like "normal" people, but here I am writing about a time that would have been a dream for me to live in. I should actually be dreaming.....

Glamour, Fun, & Torment: The Last Time I Saw Paris

"I'll never be a size 10 again," laments Elizabeth Taylor's "Helen" to her husband Van Johnson "Charles" after the recent birth of their child.

Ah, what would they say now if the film were remade starring one of our young actresses, "I'll never be a size 0...."
The film is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited" and stars Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson. A very tan Roger Moore plays her young boy toy. Donna Reed and Ava Gabor co-star. Ava's accent is entirely dreamy.

Helen Rose designed some absolutely stunning gowns for the film. One was rather Vivienne Westwood ala Carrie's S&TC wedding dress....


Oh, and there is some fast sports car racing too.

Gaetano Pesce @ Italian Cultural Institute LA. NY Times T Mag

Click HERE for the article by Brooke Hodege, curator of one of my most favorite exhibitions at MOCA in the past several years, "Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture."

Solar eclipse.

Plant your seeds of intention.

Never apologize for it

Time alone.

It seems to me so many people don't know how to take time away, to sit in solitude without noise and distraction. To be comfortable being alone with their own thoughts. Or contemplating the simplest thing, like the way a leaf might blow in the breeze.

My aunt Leslie (Bucky) gave this book "A Gift from the Sea" 8 years ago and I do go back to it quite often. I love the truths it holds. I figured out long ago I have to have solitude to recharge and to appreciate all the amazing activity and people I have in my life.

I'm preparing for the shift that occurs with the solar eclipse. Quiet. :)

Way into these: Woolypocket

This will make a perfect, perfect installation on my kitchen wall!

Such a cool invention. Modular plant pockets made completely of post-consumer recyclable materials. They make them for both indoor and outdoor use. I have to know these people! Love their random acts of planting around NY and wish it would happen here in LA just to bring a smile to my face (though of course we are not as in need of it as my big apple friends).

Available @ A + R in Venice here in LA.

The Man Who Fell To Earth

This is the man who fell to earth and turned into a snail. I found him on my porch after you left. He had been drawn to the light and conversation. He was shy at first, but I put on some music, invited him in, and soon he came out of his shell. He had a very long journey, so he's resting right now.

Let's Get Lost

You know something, I'll tell you the truth. You're kinda OK

Its sooooo good you have to watch it....
And costumes by the legendary Edith Head. (Won Oscars for All About Eve, Sabrina, Roman Holiday, A Place in the Sun, The Sting....)

5 Oscar Nominations.
* Best Actress in a Leading Role (Natalie Wood)
* Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Black-and-White (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer, Grace Gregory)
* Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Milton R. Krasner)
* Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
* Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen. (Arnold Schulman)

Diana Vreeland 3 Sk8 & Surf

In 1982, former editor of Vogue magazine, and then curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, Diana Vreeland reveals that she was always in love with the sport of surfing and equally enjoys skateboarding. She recalls coming out of the museum late at night as skaters were doing ollies and jumping all over the marble front steps and plaza.

Summer Solstice

do you think we'll be listening to lady gaga in 40 years?

another cher moment. circa 1976-ish. such a voice and style innovator.

vintage cher

my mom had the entire album on vinyl, but this was one of my favorite songs to play. i liked the rhythm, the way the twinkle of the song made me see stars in a night sky, and the story.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Merce Cunningham Dance Company at REDCAT Benefit

Merce Cunningham and Mikhail Baryshnikov in 'Occasion Piece' (1999) | Photo: Robert Whitman

Two of the most recognizable names in dance–Mikhail Baryshnikov and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company–headline a show on June 7 to benefit REDCAT and the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, which works to preserve the legacy of the iconoclastic choreographer, who died at 90 last year.

The REDCAT performance will feature Occasion Piece², a version of a work that Baryshnikov and Cunningham originally performed together in 1999. The music is from “Song Books” by–another longtime Cunningham collaborator and his life partner–composer John Cage.

An extremely limited number of tickets for this intimate benefit event are still available. For more information or to reserve a seat, please email info.REDCAT@calarts.edu.

Special Benefit with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and guest artist Mikhail Baryshnikov at REDCAT
June 7
6 pm cocktail reception and 7:30 pm performance

9pm dinner with the artists

Morning mate

pic by neighbor Lance Drake.

Everyone dreams

Well, this is a good start to the weekend friends! My dear high school & former college roomie Jodi Friedman (Jodie Fashion & Jessica Trendy as we were called @ age 16 by some mean girl) sent me a hilarious email today of her dream last night.

Do you think it might come true? Do note that we grew up in a land rich with the history of the revolutionary and civil wars. Historic plaques, cannons, and the like are everywhere. We also were a amongst some of the more forward thinking and dressing people in our tiny little town.

Whoa. Some people are even creative while they sleep ;)
"soooo i have a dream...that you give birth to fraternal twins... boy and girl... tell me you hate my shoes i have been wearing... then present the twins to the world around age 2 in a mini documentary form... then at the end you pop up out of the bottom of the stage dressed in the rebel flag.... then i am caught in a flood at fort clifton and all these civil war guns are floating by me... really wtf??????.. very very wierd... please don't dress your twins in the rebel flag.. promise me this... and my shoes are fab.. stop yelling at me in my sleep!!! happy memeorial day xoxoxxoox"

Its that easy for some folks.

my favorite photo blog: You + Eye

Fountains Of Youth

I met Ryan Koopmans in NY during that whole fashion week thing. He is a dear friend of my dear designer friend Stacey Clark's. Another talented creative type from her beautiful Canadian country. In Ryan's photos you often cath that stolen moment. Maybe its some 14 year old model looking bored, or it might be an amazing architectural shot. I like the mix.

Check it out. You + Eye

Tavi TV

Tavi wearing my most favorite print from my friend Melissa's line, Wren.

Sleepy Head