I’m obsessed with this Spring Summer 2011 Cassandra Thorn bag I saw today. The LA-based company produces everything right here in California and is only in its third season but already selling at high-end retail stores and boutiques all over the US and online. The Spring collection, including the gorgeous Thorn bag above goes on sale in January 2011 at select boutiques. www.cassandrala.com
Robert Irwin in 1962 Photograph by Dennis Hopper, © The Dennis Hopper Trust, above.
Any excuse to say Robert Irwin and Dennis Hopper in the same sentence… Robert Irwin, a pioneering artist of the “Light and Space” movement, returns with an exhibition of new fluorescent light tube sculptures. Wrapping fluorescent tubes in as many as ten colored gels to attain a range of hues, Irwin mounts the lights in vertical groupings on the wall. Way Out West is an experiment with the perceptual qualities of light, playing with rhythm, texture, densities, temperature, and chromatic relationships. The show opens tomorrow, Thursday November 11th and is up through January 29th, 2011 at The Pace Gallery at 32 East 57th Street NYC.
Aside from making some of my favorite bags Le Bulga has recently launched a new charity program to clothe orphan kids in Russia. It’s freezing over there, trust me, so orphaned or not, sending clothes to Russia is the perfect good deed to add not just to the holiday list but year round. Here’s a sobering fact: Over 700,000 Russian children live in orphanages. Of those, 17,900 are toddlers under the age of 4. Many have simply been abandoned by their mothers who couldn’t afford to care for them. While the state provides basic food for these orphans, adequate clothing is just not available. The aim is simple: clothe the children, then reach out to educate and help mothers to come to a different decision. What you can do: Send new clothing for infants and gently-used clothes for those under four years of age. Please send winter clothes, boots, hats, jackets, gloves and scarves. Donation items should be sent to FY Global/attn. Le’Bulga (HCBW) to 213 west 35th street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001 starting November 15th and until February 15th.
Four years ago Le Labo founders Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi opened up a tiny little shop on Elizabeth St in New York to add to their steadily growing specialty boutiques worldwide. We shot at the store a couple of years ago when I photographed one of the Anthropologie catalogs. They recently did a collaboration with Anthropologie, which launched in stores November 1st with five vintage-inspired fragrances, each siphoned into an amber glass container made to resemble an eighteenth-century poison bottle. I love the whole concept of this place and was excited to find out there is also one in Los Angeles on 3rd street. The bottles are gorgeous and the scents are amazing. The new parfumes are available online at anthropologie.com as well as at the stores.
Someone talked me into getting reddish brown highlights done in my usually dark brown hair last winter and I have been trying to get back to my original color ever since. This weekend I went to the Prive Salon where hair stylist Chrystal Hewitt, one of their newest additions, finally gave me back the gift of true brunette. I loved her easy method and the products she used, most of which were from the Prive line, were awesome. They smelled and felt amazing and the hair color she gave me was exactly what I wanted, perfect. The Prive line also has an intensive mask for the hair that’s great for my constantly blown out and tortured tresses. I’ve been to the Beverly Boulevard location before and gotten consistently amazing blowouts from them and this time was no different. I love that their staff doesn’t push anything on you but listens and delivers exactly what they promise.
New Yorker Tracy Bonham released a new album earlier this year that I am kind of obsessed with. ‘Masts of Manhatta’ came out in July but I just stumbled on it now. Better late than never.
LA never ceases to surprise me in the best way possible and this weekend was no exception. We spent Sunday afternoon walking through the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Air Center where the P.S. Arts Express Yourself event sponsored by Target and The Bell Family took place. They have been doing this arts fundraiser since 1991 to raise money for local arts programs in schools around the city and if there is anything that gets me excited it’s arts and education. There is nothing more important than the foundation of a great education and nothing more heartbreaking than knowing there are so many kids who miss out on that gift in this country. So when anyone tries to alleviate the holes, especially with arts funding, I will do anything for it. And these guys do it brilliantly. Aside from an endless array of art projects for the kids that even the adults can get their hands dirty with there is great food from amazing restaurants, music and an impressive crowd. Target even gave away books and blankets including two of my favorites as a kid, Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Charlotte’s Web”. Something about stumbling on old childhood favorites that is very comforting these days. Books and caramel apples alike. One of the highlights was decorating a small mirror for your school locker. Jon Layne from PartyLayne specializes in organizing fun events for kids parties and has an endless array of ideas. We couldn’t resist sitting in the kids’ chairs and getting ourselves into the paint pens and stencils and personalizing small hand mirrors that we got to take home. There was also doll making, flower pot planting and decorating, sock puppets and of course dressing up for the red carpet. This is LA after all. www.psarts.org
Bill Viola‘s video art work mesmerizes me. I think his work is phenomenal and have been transfixed by it in countless dark rooms in museums the world over for many years. So when a friend of mine invited me to attend a party Thursday evening at Max and Lubov Azria’s house in Beverly Hills hosted by Jeffrey Deitch, the newly transplanted New York gallerist who is now director of MOCA, I literally jumped at the chance of meeting one of my idols who was on the expected guest list. The evening was of course amazing, full of familiar faces from both costs and artists I have dreamed of meeting including Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha and of course Bill Viola. The Azria’s house is a work of art in its own right and it was a really enjoyable night. I loved the Theremin performance in the living room as well. Amazing. There was a great documentary that came out in 1994 about the Russian inventor Leon Theremin who created the instrument and was sadly brought back to Russia against his will by the KGB later in life, but that’s a whole other post. Sadly, I never did get to meet Mr. Viola though maybe it’s for the best as it keeps the enigma alive in my mind and gives me something to look forward to for next time. One of Bill Viola’s early works that I love is above.
I love this line! Karla Fox combines a love of quirky objects with a passion for fine jewelry. Whimsical, edgy and chic her collection is comprised of 18K Gold pieces such as a guns and holsters, nymph shaped hoops, tiara inspired diamond rings, and hand-cuff danglers and chokers. www.karlafox.com
Abelardo Morell has two shows opening in NYC this month. He is probably one of the last few artists left to be using the old school technique of camera obscura which is similar to a pinhole camera in that it uses a tiny hole as a lense. The images are haunting and beautiful and take several hours to expose. It’s all pretty fascinating and the result is amazing. I am obsessed with the image above. Two solo exhibitions, one called Groundwork opened at Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC on October 7 and is up through December 18, 2010 and The Universe Next Door at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery just opened on October 29 and goes through December 11, 2010.
