Nicholas Kirkwood is touted as the next Christian Louboutin in the shoe game. I think his designs are a little radical for your basic-pump-and-peep-toe crowd, but the excess is so satisfying.
His designs invoke thoughts of sculpture, Cubism, and flying insects. I’m in love with the signature chipped-block platform. Joining the adoring chorus, I love Kirkwood shoes.
Posted in Art / Design / Artisans, Contemporary, Fashion, Pop Culture
Tagged Chloe Sevigny, Givenchy, Nicholas Kirkwood, Opening Ceremony, Shoes
Many revelations culled from browsing the Auction of Michael Jackson’s Treasures:
Michael Jackson is part of history, okay? He IS History.
THE Socks…they WEREN’T sequined throughout! Michael needs sport-toe reinforcement too, JUST LIKE US!
AND, Michael loves/loved icons of royalty. Crowns, official seals, coats of arms, military regalia and scepters and stuff. Just couldn’t get enough of the King’s Booty.
Check the Edward Scissorhands detail behind this throne.
The final conclusion of my perusing is…
…that Dude is Crazy. Officially.
Posted in Art / Design / Artisans, Deals and Steals, Funny Ha-Ha, Hollywood, Interior Design, Link, Pop Culture
Tagged Auction, Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson
I would’ve loved it if Rourke won and gave another shot-out to Eric Roberts. Cocaine is a helluva drug.
Here’s my favorite dress of the event:
Marion Cotillard in Dior. Go Goth n’ Big – a good rule to live by.
Hit list: Black tulle, sparkly things, vinyl/PVC touch, cinched waist, check check check.
A lot of dresses this year were slim-cut, mermaid-tailed, glittery and had neutral palettes.
Overall, pretty good and invoking 1930′s Depression Era gowns. HOW APPROPRIATE, right?
Because we’re going to hell in a handbasket, let’s keep talking about the Depression and start emulating that era. Yeah. Let’s do that.
Posted in Contemporary, Fashion, Hollywood, Pop Culture
Tagged 2009, Academy Awards
About a year ago, I ran across the work of Cecilia Carlstedt.
These two pieces stopped me in my tracks / stopped my mouse from scrolling further:
But this piece won my heart, and a place on my computer desktop background:
The illustration technique Cecilia Carlstedt employs is flawless. There is total control over the ink/paint/water/pencil, and the evidence of this control is the restraint in over-using the mediums.
Posted in Art / Design / Artisans, Contemporary, Fashion, Art Room
Tagged Illustration, Watercolor, Ink, Art Department, Cecilia Carlstedt, "Unfinished"
Gizmodo just finalized their Photoshop contest for this subject: 50 Insane Things Never Seen on Google Street View. The image above is the winning selection, designed by Kevin Foster.
Geek out! This composition incorporates some of my many loves: Downtown Los Angeles, the city’s reputation in perpetuating Film Noir and Neo-Noir storytelling, Blade Runner and a nod to its production design. The tongue-in-cheek addition of the Google Street View reminds us that 2019 Los Angeles is relevant to 2009 Los Angeles. That geisha billboard on the z-axis of S. Flower & W. 6th will arrive someday.
A loyal sheep I may be, but I believe there is no way to get around LA without heavy usage of Google Maps and Street View. We Angeleanos live on the sprawl (and soon on the highrise), and it’s a city too vast to neglect proper driving/walking and parking directions. What a ticklish thought, that even in 2019 we’ll still need Google Maps to navigate our blimp through billboards and tenant buildings. Furthermore on geeking out – I’d like to see a Google Street View of the Bradbury Building downtown…with Decker running in it.
Someday, S. Flower could be a diagonal aerial runway! Let us hope that invading Replicants are better drivers than those insane, present-day cab drivers on Flower and Wilshire.
Check out the rest of the contest entries here.
Posted in Design, Film, Link, Los Angeles, Pop Culture, Production Design
Tagged Blade Runner, Gizmodo, Google Street View, Ridley Scott
I used to wear eye contacts everyday. Sometime after college, my dry-eye condition worsened and it became apparent that I’d spend the majority of my days behind glasses. Boo hoo.
Since then, I’ve been on the quest to build a great wardrobe of eye glasses. I love vintage and classic designs, and despite some outcries, I enjoy the current trends of big/dark framed/square/nerdy glasses. To me, trends mean easier access to the styles I prefer.
I earmark eyeglass descriptions like thick-black-framed, horn-rimmed, tortoise shell and the ubiquitous Wayfayerl, but I think this is the perfect frame:
The Browline. AKA the G-Man, the “Malcolm X”, the Clubman.
Posted in Design, Fashion, Hollywood, Link, Los Angeles, Pop Culture
Tagged 50s, 60s, Browline, Clubman, G-Man, Malcolm X, Old Focals, Ray-Ban, Shuron Ronsir
The power of Christian Louboutin shoes enslaves many a lady and proto-lady. Many people are willing to throw down next month’s rent money for a pair of real Red Soles. At the very least, many people stalk their favorite Louboutin pairs online, hoping for the day an extra $600 floats into their lives or the beloved patent leather pair go on SALE. The latter, by the way, never happens.
And so, people continue their philosophical contemplations inside department stores and in front of glowing eBay web pages: “Homelessness, or pink patent Louboutins? Hmmm.”
Louboutin originals are so. damn. sexy. The design stirs something carnal within shoe lovers:
That COLOR. That ARCH. That HEEL SHAPE.
Even when they look like hooker shoes, the Red Soles anchor them to some semblance of taste. MAYBE it’s the minimum-$600 price tag that anchors them in “tasteful” land. I mean you can still look like a trainwreck, but flip the outfit 180 degrees into “fierce and hilarious” land with a good shoe.
At a $600-$1500 per pair price range, you’d think that Christian Louboutin is rolling in a McScrooge-sea-of-money vault from obvious profits. People are laying down mortgage payment amounts for these shoes. Louboutin could blow his nose with $100 bills. SO WHY…WHY WHY WHY does his website look like this?!?!?!
Posted in Design, Fashion, Funny Ha-Ha
Tagged Christian Louboutin, Shoes, Website design
Casino. This film holds a special place in my heart.
Once upon a time, Las Vegas was a brash fantasy - loud, garish, and infused with synthetic energies and materials. A plastic and mirrored flower stuck in the desert. Vegas wasn’t shy of its purpose – money – and it was best to wear your money, if you had it.
Ginger Rothstein, played by Sharon Stone, is the personification of the Vegas dream and past history – glamorous, greedy, elegant and audacious in one body. She’s even hollow and broken inside, much like the experiences and reputations the city lends out to its visitors and inhabitants.
A skin-tight, beaded gold gown sounds like the wrong decision to many women, but Ginger makes it right in Casino. I love this character’s ability to show the audience how loud Vegas clothing was once elegant, or at least attractive.
(Spoilers ahead!)
Posted in Fashion, Film, Hollywood
Tagged Casino, Costume design, John Dunn, Martin Scorsese, Rita Ryack, Robert DeNiro, Screen Musings, Sharon Stone, Style icons
Front and back
Freshman year, my Medieval History TA wore this to discussion group. NOBODY made mention of it – that’s what you get, taking Medieval History as a GE requirement. Uncaring jerks. This is one of the best t-shirt ideas ever.
The missing element is an image of the flea – the insect was the true culprit in spreading the plague from vermin to humans. Transferral of fluids. Yum.
