Through the Rabbit Hole

Just when I was starting to think that I'd seen everything that contemporary jewelry designers have to offer, Korean Swedish designer Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding appeared on my radar.  Looking more like a sculptural protrusion or an uncomfortable outgrowth of the wearer's body than say, your traditional adornment, Sinding's rubber pieces are oversized and outlandish.  I haven't seen them in person, so it's impossible for me to gauge the weight of these objects, but looking at the true-to-life-sized birds that perch on your hand as a component of a ring, I'm pretty sure this jewelry serves to hinder the wearer's mobility.  You can definitely forget about performing banal activities like washing the dishes or blogging in these (although I'm sure they'd make hailing a cab a cinch).  It's kind of one of those cases where the jewelry wears you, and I imagine that once you put on one of Sinding's broaches, you in effect become part of the sculpture.  Whether this appeals to your or not, this is the kind of art that I wouldn't mind becoming, and without having to undergo some kind of frightening Jocelyn Wildenstein style transformation either.  Apparently, this ScandinAsian designer is represented by Charon Kransen in New York, which might warrant a further in-person visit...

-Tiffany

Not In My Town!!

It is sad to say that The DKNY mural in Soho may be no more. The building has been purchased to put up a Hollister flagship store, and will be replaced by an all grey sign that simply says " Hollister Coming Soon".The mural is pre911, has been up for twenty years and is the backdrop to millions of vacationers photos. It does not deserve to be put out like this!



-Christina

What's Up Pussycat?

Like most Asian females, I've been enamoured with all things Hello Kitty since childhood.  During my lifetime, I've witnessed the somewhat surprising and multifarious pop cultural appropriations of the mouthless Japanese kitten, who has seen her low-brow cartoon icon status reach art star proportions, appearing in museum exhibitions alongside Takashi Murakami, as well as being sculpted by Tom Sachs, with the results currently gracing the courtyard of Lever House.

This year alone Ms. Kitty seems to be doing her fair share of dabbling in the fashion world, appearing on T-shirts at Colette, taking residence at the Opening Ceremony store, and most recently, releasing a makeup collaboration with M.A.C.  As the proud owner of a Hello Kitty toaster (which my husband despises) and waffle maker (which spits out Kitty shaped waffles), I was a bit alarmed when I found this video of the M.A.C. x Hello Kitty advertisement on Racked yesterday.  Trannies, tulle, pussycats, the color pink, and Hello Kitty herself (albeit, as an oiled-up, frog-hopping, male go-go dancer), are all things that I love and adore individually, but all put together at once in a very David Lachapelle style music video?  I know I definitely have better things to write about than this (seriously, that Rodarte dress DIY is coming), but it makes the mind-bend a little, and had to be shared.  Of course, I will probably still buy the makeup...

-Tiffany

Everything E.M.

Gold-plate and sterling silver gem encrusted balls from E.M.'s main women's jewelry line.

Yesterday, I wrapped up my final day of trade shows, working the E.M. jewelry booth all weekend at Designers & Agents. While the show is more like your run-of-the-mill tradeshow, and not nearly as cool as Rendez-Vous, I still managed to bump into a few familiar faces, get a nice introduction to the new jewels that I will be representing, and play with the sweetest, cutest baby I've ever seen in my life. Plus, they ply you with free food and booze starting at four, which makes time go by faster, as well as ensuring that if you are an unabashed glutton like myself, you will gain a couple of pounds by the end of the show.

I have to admit, before the line arrived, I was a little nervous taking on a fourth jewelry line. I am really lucky to represent three strong, young jewelry lines that each are incredibly unique styles: Kiel Mead, Sunday's Best, and Rue. E.M. is based out of Tokyo, and has been around for about 14 years, in which the company has grown into seven different lines, including the main women's line, E.M., the men's line, E.M. noir (represented by the handsome boys over at the Mexico Showroom), and their children's line, Tiptoe (which I will also represent). They are very well established in Japan, and their linesheet is the size of a small encyclopedia.  While they don't fall into the category of fine jewelry, they are definitely on the high end of fashion jewelry, and everything is made from sterling silver, goldplate, and semi-precious stones.  It is definitely the most expensive line that I represent, but I love the design diversity of the entire company, which ranges from kitchy plastic baubles in neon colors, to massive Vivienne Westwood style silver rings.  There's definitely something for everybody at E.M., and I'm pretty excited to have them at Fiftytwo for the season.  Now I just have to decide what I want to order for myself, and I already walked away from the tradeshow with an armor-style earlobe cuff from E.M. noir...

Some of my favorite rings from the E.M. noir collection, which I sadly won't be representing.  I fell in love with their version of the armor ring, and all of those gigantic jewel encrusted seals, which unfortunately don't come in women's sizes...

Sterling silver stack rings, dripping with cubic zirconia gems.

These plastic pig rings are somewhat hilarious, yet slightly satanic, and definitely have a Lord of The Flies feel to them, especially the one with the fly on its ass.  If I end up ordering one, I'll get the black one with the fly, and wear it upside down.

I wore the chain mail ring, made of 50 strands of silver chain, and this stack of mixed silver and gold rings from Mehem, E.M.'s unisex jewelry line, all day long.

Miyobi, the designer's 11 month old daughter.  I'm going to miss this little chunkster!

-Tiffany

Margaritaville

Fashion Week may be officially over, but we never stop working over here at 66S. Remember that Margarita Saplala photoshoot we did a couple of weeks ago?  Well here are the results.  Tomorrow night at Six Six Sick, we will be hosting a party to celebrate Margarita's Fall 2009 collection, as well as her new jewelry collaboration with P.Y.T. designer, Arlene Guerra, both represented by our beloved friends at W29 Showroom.  Margarita's new collection features her trademark prints, which she designs each season, this time featuring pixelated cross stitch patterns.  Please stop by to celebrate with us at Happy Ending, there will be an open bar from 11-12, and we will be wearing our new matching Margarita Saplala dresses, natch.  In the meantime, take a look at some of the outtakes from the super fun shoot we did with photographer Liudi Hara. 

-Tiffany

Caged In: DIY Elastic Dress for Susie Bubble

Susie tried on the elastic hair dress when she visited me at Rendez-Vous, and miraculously, it fit her almost perfectly.

Style Bubble is the first fashion blog I ever read, and it is still the first blog I check on everyday. I found Susie in the pages of WWD at work over a year ago, and quickly decided that her blog was much more insightful and addictive than the newsy and number-filled industry prattle of the newspaper that I spotted her in. I have since become more acquainted with the blogosphere, and I have to say, Susie is one of the few major bloggers who is absolutely fearless about fashion, and who possesses a true irreverence. While the internet is currently turning into what Lulu once described as an "amateur modeling contest," Susie doesn't follow trends, popular opinions, or gushing hype, but instead has always covered the under-the-radar designers, the most eclectic styles, and the unbeaten path off into the unknown. This is why she is one of our all-time style icons at 66S, and why we invited her to guest host as a 66S Girl (a privilege that has thus far only been extended to the aforementioned acerbic blogger). After shooting a bunch of transatlantic emails back and forth, we decided to make a matching outfit for her to wear to Six Six Sick with us.

Due to extenuating circumstances, Susie was unfortunately stuck at her computer on the night she was supposed to come out, which was incredibly disappointing, but nonetheless we managed to meet up for lunch at Rendez Vous, and she also got to pick up the dress that we made for her.  Here's how it all came together.

When we started, Christina had wanted to do an elastic dress similar to the Brian Lichtenberg inspired one that the lovely Queen Michelle made. We wanted to alter it by weaving black and white elastic together and adding fake hair to the shoulders, and making it more Gareth Pugh inspired. Still, once we got started on the woven elastic dress, it became clear that even though the design looked nice, it felt technically impossible to fit. In the fitting process, Christina started to sew the black elastic all together first, and when I tried it on, I realized it looked much better without any of the white elastic anyway. We still didn't want it to be straight bars, so Christina wove the black elastic in the front so it crisscrossed, with a 30-inch long zipper attaching it all together in the back. Each of the elastic strips had to be individually fit to our bodies, since elastic bands are very unforgiving, and create nasty fat-bulges whenever they're done too-tight. Ironically, it ended up becoming a cage dress (both design wise, and constriction-wise), which seemed fitting given Susie's cage-obsession.

Once the cage dresses were finished, we divided the 18-inch long tracks of black synthetic hair, and hand-sewed two 6-inch layers of hair across each shoulder strap.

Christina used nude jersey to make a tube dress to wear underneath the elastic dress.

We wore our hair up so that it would be distinguishable from the fake hair on our shoulders, and wore it with black patent heels. Christina is wearing her Givenchy shoes.

The back of the dress, modeled by Susie. Let me tell you, it is pretty difficult to zip this thing up---thank god there are three of us.  You can see more pictures on her blog.

-Tiffany

Rendez-Vous New York

E.M. noir, the super-sick men's jewelry line designed by the same team as E.M., who I will be representing this season at Fiftytwo.

Ok, so I feel somewhat like I'm posting from my deathbed at the moment, half-way through Market Week, with the other half of the marathon left to finish. Luckily, the company that I've had at the trade shows has made it well worth it. Yesterday, I stepped in for Catherine to represent Kaylee Tankus at the Rendez-Vous New York trade show, the contemporary fashion trade show based in Paris, that made its New York debut this season. First, let me say that I was wonderfully surprised when I arrived, and found that half the people staffing the show were old nightlife friends, which added to the general sense of camaraderie in the air, and the significantly laid back atmosphere. Normally, I'd be a bit scared to ask other vendors to take pictures, since so many people crash trade shows to blatantly copy clothing lines, and there always seems to be an underlying sense of paranoia in the air. This time though, I felt perfectly at ease chatting with some of the amazing designers who were exhibiting. Here are a few of the many highlights.

Some of the really amazing hats and gloves from the lovely people at London's Six Showroom.

An orange felt Minimarket bowler hat that I'm coveting, also from Six Showroom.

I was so lucky to have Bijules as my booth neighbor.  Not only is she one of the most awesome downtown party girls (we've hosted with her before), but I'm always blown away by her unique voice and vision, and this season she continued to impress.  Check out her metal Elfin-ear attachments, and her cast-mineral brass knuckles.

I got to meet Arielle de Pinto, whose crochet chain mail necklaces I've admired for a very long time.

I totally fell in love with this adorable clown-face shirt from Pepper & Pistol, who did an entire Circus and Clown themed collection for Fall 2009.

Brendan, a new friend I met through Susie, walked through some of the booths with me.  Both of us appreciated these giant felt A.F. Vandervorst boots.

This rubber necklace looked and smelled like garlands of black licorice.  It was from Barbara I Gongini's booth, which was one of my favorite in the entire show---I will have to dedicate a separate post to it!

A padded Risto Bimbiloski jacket covered in eagle eyes tapped into my current obsession with Twin-Peak-style-creepy-bird clothing.

-Tiffany

Style Schizophrenia

The hairy Coven sweater that I'm obsessed with finally came in to the showroom.  I immediately threw it on with a Coven belt, and paired it with my DIY Rodarte dress (full DIY report to come) and leggings, and my Rachel Comey boots.  Coincidentally, a day later Rodarte showed their real Fall 2009 collection, which was full of shaggy, hairy jackets like this Coven one.

So what's the best part of working super long days and 12-day weeks at the showroom during Market Week (all in addition to our grueling nightlife schedule)?  Getting to play dress up in all of the showroom designer's Fall 2009 collections!  This season, all of the designers at Fiftytwo have such unique voices and different perspectives, each demanding their fair share of attention.  For someone with a serious case of A.D.D. like myself, it's a perfect time for experimentation, and to play at mixing and matching styles from the showroom with my own clothes.  Here's some of the outfits I've been wearing at work over the past insane week.  Some pieces have pretty much been attached to me from day one, but otherwise market week has involved a major case of style schizophrenia.  Once again, sorry the pictures are so crappy---work isn't the best place to have a personal photoshoot, believe it or not...

First day of market, trying on all of the accessory lines that I represent! Devaki fur felt hat, Sunday's Best rope necklace and bracelet, and Rue rings from the showroom, paired with my Balenciaga vest, Topshop Unique top, and Zara pants.

Camilla Norrback cashmere owl sweater and folliage leggings (they're a bit baggy on me!), Rue raw copper branch necklace, and Devaki felt hat from the showroom, with my Joseph leather skirt and Rachel Comey boots.

This multi-colored sequined Raasta dress is one of my favorite pieces right now.  I wore it with a Sunday's Best reversible rope necklace and woven bangle bracelet from the showroom, and my own Burberry booties and American Apparel tights.

Sunday's Best silver bangle and Rue rings from the showroom, worn with my Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony dress, Topshop fringed jacket, Chanel boots, Wolford tights, and necklaces of my own design.

Raasta day.  This line is crazy and  somewhat intimidating looking on the hangers, which naturally means it's one of my favorite lines to play with in the showroom.  I'm totally in love with these see-through trews (so Susie Bubble), which I'm definitely placing a personal order for.  Raasta multi-pleat silk dress and silk pants, Devaki hat, Sunday's Best rope necklace and bracelet, all from the showroom, worn with my own Vivienne Westwood for Melissa flats.

This floppy hat is seriously my new obsession, and I wore it again today with a Kaylee Tankus jacket, Lerario Beatriz dip-dye scarf, and EM rings from the showroom, with my own Thakoon for Target sweater, Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony dress, American Apparel tights, and Rachel Comey boots.  

-Tiffany

Altuzarra Fall 2009

One of my favorite looks from the entire collection, a silver dress paired with over-the knee fur trimmed boots!

Monday evening, my good friend Joseph Altuzarra (who I already wrote about) had his first official fashion show, presenting his Fall 2009 collection of immaculately constructed and ruched womenswear, accompanied by some to-die-for over the knee boots, part of his collaboration with shoe designer Gianvito Rossi. While last season he kept his presentation low-key, skipping a show, and only taking appointments to view the collection, this season's show, though maintaining the same intimate atmosphere, had an audience full of boldfaced names. Mother and daughter Roitfeld, lookbook model Vanessa Traina, Barney's Julie Gilhart, and fellow up-and-comer Julian Louie, were all in the audience. I watched the show with the Papermag’s Mickey Boardman, who joked that I should skin a couple of kittens and DIY myself a pair of those thigh-high beauties with tufts of fur on the front. If only Joseph's work was DIY-able (not that I'm planning on killing any kittens!). Even though we love a good DIY challenge, I know Joseph and his work well enough by now to recognize that his designs are constructed with couture finishing, and almost impossible to reproduce without the highest degree of tailoring skill. You can already see the entire collection up on style.com, but here are some of my favorite looks.

-Tiffany