I turned 30

I know this blog is boringsville lately... winter is aiming to be long so hopefully shall pick up a bit.

I turned 30 last weekend. I was so scared of it for some reason and not looking forward to it, but then it happened and I was into it... the majority of my friends have reached this milestone already and say that life is so much better in your 30's... so I'm looking forward to what this shall bring.

A weekend in the Catskills

I just got back from a near-perfect weekend in the Catskills for my 29th birthday. I invited 10 friends, some of whom had never met, up to a cabin that I rented in Prattsville, NY, for an overnight stay. It was gorgeous. It rained Saturday night but by Sunday it had cleared up and it was nearly t-shirt weather. I have started seeing a new guy who just happens to be an avid outdoorsman and he brought all kinds of guns for us to play with. Not surprisingly I was a really bad shot. Oh well, I tried.

We saw all kinds of animals (country mice, wood peckers, deer, horses, etc.), drank cider with brandy, toasted marshmallows, told ghost stories, played Scrabble, ate meatballs, sat by the fire, and sang karaoke. Everyone helped out and everyone got along. We also went up to the tallest waterfall in NY State, Kaaterskill Falls. Alex fell in the water and lost his glasses.

I barely ever get to leave the city, I really need to do this more often.

YSL Parisienne Party

Last night I got to go to a whole half an hour of the YSL Parisienne party. Due to a PR nightmare at the door we ended up waiting outside for nearly the whole party. Pretty disappointing as I'd been looking forward to it all month and all my friends, who had arrived on time (I'd waited for some latecomers) got in immediately. Despite nearly having a panic attack it was pretty neat once I got in. It was at the Angel Orensanz Center, a former synagogue in the Lower East Side, a perfect setting for a decadent masquerade ball. Everyone really made an effort to dress up and it was great. Its so rare that people do these days.

Photo courtesy of High Snobette

Here are some photos of my friends, all a wee bit tipsy since they'd been in since 9. Oh well, they got the hangovers and I didn't!

I am going to be a crow for halloween, basically I have a lot of feather action happening and a leather mask. What are you going to be?

Halloween Inspiration from the S/S 2010 Runway shows

It's nearly my favorite holiday, Halloween! In the past few years I've tried to steer away from the stereotypical "sexy ______" or "slutty ________" costumes in favor of costumes that are a little more creative, and hopefully, more in the "spooky" Halloween spirit. What I do love about Halloween is that its an excuse to wear just about ANYTHING and get away with it. I have a lot of stuff in my apartment that I would love to wear every day but would get me nothing but weird looks and comments (especially my hats from the 30's!). So I usually take the opportunity to go ALL OUT and over the top. In a way, this is a lot like what designers do on the runway, its their one opportunity to present their creative vision, though much of the time its not looks that their customers will ever wear top-to-toe. In that spirit, let's get creative and take a look at some of the runway shows for inspiration for Halloween costumes this year (most images courtesy of nymag.com).

Yohji Yamamoto Haute Zombie

Yohji sent a parade of zombies down the runway for S/S 2010, and these looks are some great inspiration for zombie costumes for Halloween. All you need for this look is the hair and makeup, and then some slick, tailored clothes to hack up a bit (might wanna try the thrift store and find some nice tailored menswear instead of hacking up anything too expensive!). Tada, Haute Zombie!

Alexander McQueen Futuristic Alien/Sea Creature

By far one of the weirder shows this season (we'd expect nothing less), McQueen's theatric show is great inspiration for a futuristic, alien-inspired costume. Metallic fabrics, tin foil, cellophane, and wire should help you create a look inspired by this show. The wire should also help in making one of these hairstyles!

Anne Demeulemeester Bondage Gimp

S&M looks are always popular for Halloween (just ask my friend Lou who works in a latex shop, they get very busy this time of year!), but you can totally do it with some style a la Ms. Demeulemeester. Belts, chains, zips, leather, latex... just make it look scary not skanky, please!

Comme Des Garcons Scary Clown

Nothing is scarier than a clown, right? With the right wig and a mix of bright colors, clown make-up, and a creepy smile, you'll be scaring all the fashionistas on your block.

Gareth Pugh Swamp Thing

You HAVE to look at these close up to appreciate the make up but this show was super creepy! These looks at the end screamed "swamp thing" to me. You're gonna need to do some crazy shredding to get this look, and many yards of jersey.

Givenchy Goth Conehead

I always end up seeing some coneheads on Halloween, I'm not quite sure why, such an old movie and not particularly scary but I guess its an easy costume to do. But how about let's spook it up a little bit and be Givenchy Goth Coneheads? Mostly the same, except goth-er. That's more like it!

Marc Jacobs Ghost/Ice Princess

You don't need to be in black to be scary, as Marc Jacobs showed us this spring. These eerie looks were inspired by Kabuki girls, but I think they kinda look like ice princesses or ghosts! You don't need to hide under a sheet to be a ghost, just a flowy chiffon white or ice blue dress and some white face make up. YES!

Charlie Le Mindu Cousin It

Addams Family members are always popular on Halloween, and make a great group costume. Coustin It, the overly hairy member of the Addams extended family, is a relatively easy costume to do, but why not take it to the next level a la Charlie Le Mindu and rock those hair extensions EVERYWHERE?

Giles Deacon Spider-Woman

Finally, if you're not going to do a full-on costume, why not just embrace some Halloween-inspired prints? Spiders, bats, ghosts, witches, any of these motifs done in a creative way is a good effort.

Zac Posen accessories

Hi, I haven't had any ideas of what to post here lately. I'm interning 2 days a week at a trend forecasting company, basically cropping photos all day but its fun so far, eye candy all day long. Its nice to look at the shows in high resolution.

I've been working mainly on accessories, my favorites from New York Fashion Week were the laser-cut brooches at Zac Posen, I hope to see this ripped off soon on Etsy? I didn't really like the actual clothes that much but these pins rule.

PORTLAND!

Dudes, lots has changed in the past few weeks! As I mentioned, I left England. It was sad, but what can you do... I am looking forward to new things and pursuing a real job instead of, say, working in a crap pub for 5.75 an hour cash in hand. I actually got a couple of job offers in England before they learned that I was only on a tourist visa. Damn, why do I always have to be so honest with people?

It was good to get back to the states in time to go to Automne and Graham's wedding in Portland. I don't really know these kids too well, but Automne and I had been corresponding via emails and blogs and what not so I felt like I knew what I could expect from them. I'd never been to Portland before but it also lived up to expectations: lots of vegan fixed gear kids, lots of bums/homeless people, lots of vegan/hippy shit, but... LOTS of amazing vintage shopping. As Elizabeth put it, it is ENDLESS and AMAZING.

First, the wedding... Automne's dress was OOC (out of control) radness, it was a purple, floor length number that she customized with tons of fabric flowers. And she wore matching pink and purple chiffon veil. They made a ZINE complete with mixed CD (which, sadly, I think I left in my hotel, ARGHHH!) and they even did a blog with profiles of all the wedding guests. The actual ceremony was the best part, I think... very informal and sweet and they wrote their own vows. They even had a "wedding manifesto." It ruled. I won't post my photos cause theirs are better but be sure to check it out.

The rest of the trip we spent riding bikes and vintage shopping. There were, fortunately, a good number of stores near our hotel which is where I made my purchases. First up, and best really, was Bombshell Vintage. There was a great selection of midcentury stuff, it was on the expensive side for Portland but cheap for someone coming from London and New York. I bought a 40's black silk dress and a 50's Lorrie Deb chiffon dress that I ended up wearing to the wedding. Came in at under $100, not bad.

Next up down the block was a shop called Zeno Oddities, which was an odd assortment of records, vintage, and other, well, "oddities." The guy who ran this shop was obviously much more interested in the records, but there was a nice, very small assortment of vintage, including a 40's dress that I picked up for $30 (score!). He gave me $2 off because a button fell off, pays to be a seamstress.

Further along Burnside was Hattie's Vintage. This was by and large the most expensive of the vintage shops we hit, but they had a nice selection.

I tried on a couple of 30's dresses including this black bias-cut number (very Madeleine Vionnet!)... I still can't get the hang of a long hem though so I left it there, even though it was really cool. Plus I'd already spend over $100.

The last store on this stretch was one called Rock and Rose. It was pretty mediocre, lots of vintage tees and stuff of that nature. Ana found some stuff though for cheap. I still have a hard time accepting that 90's stuff can be called "vintage" now.

The next day we ventured over to the Hawthorne District, which reminded me a lot of Telegraph Ave. in my hometown, Berkeley, CA, and lived up to a lot of Portland stereotypes. Behold:

I died a little inside. Aaaanyways, there were outlets of Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads (both in Berkeley as well) around here which we skipped but we did check out Red Light, which we were told was Portland's answer to Beacon's Closet. There was lots to look through here, also lots of crap and clothes from a few years ago. I had my eye out for things I could re-sell since I'd already spent my clothing budget for myself the day prior... I found an Emma Domb 50's dress for $20 and a couple of other things but determined that they were not really saleable so left them all behind... I'm still thinking about them days later and wondering if I made a mistake. Oh well, you never know!

Monday Ana and I went for a bike ride with rented bikes from the hotel. We rode for about 2 hours along the river.

On Tuesday I checked out Fringe Vintage, which was cute but not really worth writing home about. Not enough mid century. Nice merchandising, though. After that I met up with Elizabeth and we had tacos. She was being shy for some reason.

Then it was off to California, they put me on the smallest plane ever and it was super claustrophobic.

You could see Mt. St. Helens.