Love this bag. Am obsessed with Matt and Nat bags because they’re not only gorgeous and fun but made out of faux leather. The line has been around for fifteen years, never uses animal by products and incorporates recycled materials into each bag. I love the white version of the one above as well!
W magazine’s ‘In a Fashion Minute’ is looking for the next STAR filmmaker and asking readers to submit a creative one-minute video of their interpretation of the best style moment of the season. Fashion Photographer Tim Walker, Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant, W magazine Creative Director Jody Quon, and filmmaker Douglas Keeve will be the judges for W’s first-ever online film festival launching this November. If you’re interested log-on to wmagazine.com/fashiononfilm to upload your video along with a short description about the film and yourself. The winner will be announced and featured on wmagazine.com in December and awarded a $1,000 prize. Get out your Red Cameras and Flip Minis.
Luisa Beccaria has always made me want to be an Italian mistress, spending my days lounging around the Villa, sipping champagne while reading lazily through Jane Austin books awaiting my lover. Or perhaps a bookish yet gorgeous muse in a Fellini or Antonioni film. If anyone is listening please consider that a request for my next lifetime. For now I will settle for this whole collection.
A few weeks ago my best friends mom was cleaning out her closet and I was the lucky recipient of a vintage 1970’s Pierre Cardin Lauren Hutton-esque safari blazer. It’s gorgeous and I have been totally addicted, wearing it night and day, so it’s fair to say I am a little obsessed with the Gucci blazer above. Also love the usual array of sexy slick looks in the simpler neutral tones.
I have worshipped at the alter of Burberry’s Christopher Bailey for nearly a decade. He can do no wrong in my eyes. Love his edgy punk rock princess classic girls with confident spunk and a voice of their own. So sexy and chic.
There are always rumblings about town regarding retouching and the unattainable perfection that is demanded from men and women in the public eye by the media but really by society. I am always fascinated by the debate and have mixed feelings about it. These photos of Mischa Barton are not re-touched at all and should alleviate any doubt that there are photographers who don’t always retouch and celebrities who don’t always need it. Full disclosure there were a couple of other shots in the rest of the shoot that I had retouched for the cover very minimally but I am not always a fan of perfection though when it happens naturally I think it’s beautiful.
I also come from a school of thought that finds beauty in imperfection and reality (not reality TV) and only began retouching my photos in the past two years because I realized I had to stay in tune with what the companies I was working for wanted their models and actresses to look like. I didn’t retouch a single photo while working for any of the glossy magazines I have shot for the past decade and never heard anything about it. The girls are young, beautiful and didn’t need my help staying that way after I shot them. For years I did not retouch images not only because I couldn’t always afford to when shooting no budget editorials but also because they didn’t need retouching in my opinion. There are also times when I am grateful for the tool of retouching because it really is like magic and makes things that much cleaner and smoother on people of all ages. And at the end of the day photography is an art and at times akin to painting. Continue reading
One of the few shows outside of fashion week that I managed to see and love in the past couple of weeks was Peter Stichbury’s paintings at Tracy Williams Gallery on 23rd Street. The paintings undulate and breathe as you look at them and I can’t remember the last time I saw anything like it. I had to actually look at the side of the painting to make sure it wasn’t a trick of the canvas or an electronic gadget at work. But no, it was just the paint and the obsessively skilled brush of the painter. There is a dialogue on retouching and perfection going on here as well which seems relevant to me especially this week. Loved his work and this is apparently his first show in the US. TRACY WILLIAMS 521 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011 212.229.2757
I want to blame LA for this but not sure I can entirely. I have become a burger addict. Before I went vegan/vegetarian whatever it is I am doing now I was hooked on the Truffle burger at Umami on La Brea and 9th Street and of course the staple at Father’s Office and the Bison Burger at Surfas in Culver City. Okay obviously I made the rounds. The burgers at 25 Degrees inside the Roosevelt Hotel are amazing as well and Corner Bistro on 8th Avenue and West 4th in NYC still remain one of the best. Anyway, I digress. My point is while I am still majorly obsessed with the Earth Burger at Umami in LA this past week I walked into Bill’s Burgers and Beers and came out a different addict. Their Veggie Burgers are insane. I ordered mine with the chili peppers and caramelized onions. Bill’s Bar & Burger is at 22 9th Ave at West 13th Street in NYC. Bill, when are you coming to LA?
Based in Tel Aviv, Michal Chelbin (Israeli, b. 1974) graduated from the Wizo Academy of Design and Education in Israel in 2001. Chelbin was short listed for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London 2009 and has been exhibiting her raw photographs at galleries around the world ever since. On October 23rd, 2010 M+B Gallery in West Hollywood will open a new show of Chelbin’s work called ‘The Black Eye’ comprised of portraits of young Eastern European athletes at professional wrestling schools in various states of exhaustion: sweaty, bruised and bored they are photographed in their first few minutes of recovery. The facial expressions on the young boys say it all if nothing at all. M+B, 612 North Almont Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90069, October 23 – December 4, 2010, Tuesday – Saturday, 10a – 6pm www.mbart.com
