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Tuesday , March 16, 2010

Love: Bridge & Burn

I love a garment that is so simple and well-executed that it allows you to pretend you are beyond being stylish. It's the type of thing that usually only design snobs and people with acutely sensitive visual instincts can spot right away, and still others will just babble about "effortless chic" when you wear something so beautifully impeccable. But deep down, you know buying something as stealthily awesome as the spring outerwear collection from Bridge & Burn requires huge amounts of research and deliberation and communing with your inner-beingness to make sure that your outside is completely attuned and expressive of your soul. Oh, it's such hard work, being so "effortlessly stylish"! So I understand if you use this as a cheat sheet and just get this super-adorable librarian's jacket for yourself (and that other jacket for your favorite dude--because, hooray, a company that's a score for both boys and girls!) Sometimes life's as simple as seeing a cool picture of a cool jacket and going, "Damn, that's hot!" Because these jackets are: they're also chic, tasteful, classic and thoughtful. (Also: these are pretty reasonably-priced. CLINCHER!) It's okay. Fashion doesn't have to be so much work. These will make you look like you never work at it, you just are.

Tags: Bridge & Burn, effort, effortless, outerwear, work

Wednesday , March 3, 2010

A Day in the Life: Our Most Compliment-Attracting Pieces of Clothing

TO QUOTE FAITH NO MORE: THIS ONE'S FOR THE LADIES IN THE HOUSE*

This is not the most compliment-attracting piece of clothing in my wardrobe. It's not even in the top five! Maybe it's number 12. Number one is probably the zebra-striped knee-length polyester skirt I bought for $5 at Salvation Army last summer, which doesn't count, because the majority of those compliment-givers are boys. And boys are gross! (Some of them, anyway.) So of course they're going to praise you for wearing an animal-print stretchy-fabric'd item on the lower half of your body, and then stupidly refer to it as a "tiger skirt." And in your head you're all, "It's a fucking zebra, stupid," but out loud you just say "Thank you," politely but kinda curt, and then you keep walking.

Boys don't ever say anything about this dress, though. But girls sure do! Girls say it's so cute. "Thanks, girls," I reply, even if I'm talking to just one girl at the time. It's like that Spin story I read a few years back, where Chuck Klosterman wrote that Jenny Lewis is "fashionable in the way that women tend to appreciate more than men" - something I don't find all that true about Jenny Lewis, but find absolutely true about my dress. I wear it with knee socks and strappy flats, call myself "a go-go dancer on her way to Sunday school," and oh how the women appreciate it more than the men.

(The women write sonnets and epic ballads and short films about my dress, and the men are all "Where's the tiger skirt?" Boys will be boys. They can't help it, the boys can't help it.)

So, I bought my dress on new year's morning, at that Echo Park vintage store I can never remember the name of. I was in a shit mood, awake way too early, and that shop was really the only thing happening on Sunset Boulevard. I spent a real long time moping through the overstuffed racks and ended up with the dress even though it's nothing like anything I've ever worn - or maybe because it's nothing like anything I've ever worn, this being a new year and new decade and all. It didn't black out my black mood right away, but later on I went down to the beach and I was walking barefoot in my new year's dress and "Tomorrow Never Knows" came up on my iPod shuffle just as a bunch of seagulls flew past and screeched their "Tomorrow Never Knows"-y screech. My, what a comical beach you are!, I gasped to myself and then felt better about everything in the world, in some cool sorta way I can still access now whenever I need to. And later on that night I bought a bottle of champagne mostly because the label so perfectly matched my dress's seafoam green - which is something no stupid tiger skirt's ever been able to pull off, that's for damn sure. (Liz)

*In the intro to their cover of "Easy" by the Commodores, duh.

THE "COZY YET FEROCIOUS" ZEN OF A BLACK MOTORCYCLE JACKET

The first time I ever wore a black motorcycle jacket, I was 14 years old and I was hanging out with this senior dude who had a Mohawk and wore chains around his neck and a leather biker jacket every day to class. He persecuted me in World History class by grabbing my hair and yelling "straw hair!" and belittling my opinions, and I kind of couldn't stand him. I don't mean this in a cute screwball-comedy way. I mean that I really loathed him, right down to the tips of his black combat boots. Normally things like combat boots and chains are cool, except when they are worn by a bully. Yet somehow I found myself in his orbit every so often. What can I say? I was 14 and my options were limited. I was also severely depressed for the one and only time in my life, and I didn't care much who I hung out with, as long as there was someone around. My simple yet brilliant logic was if someone was around, I wouldn't kill myself. That explained why the company surrounding me was all willy-nilly. (I mean, 14 years old was the last time I ever consented to go to a "Christian church group," you know? Like I said: willy-nilly.) Needless to say, 14 years old was the year in my life that I didn't really care what I looked like. I wore anything. I don't remember what I wore.

Somehow, one dreary, depressing, horrible winter day in the most dreary, depressing, horrible year of my life, me and a few people were at this dude's house and he was lecturing us about Joy Division, being the most pedantic and annoying human being on the planet. It's almost a miracle that my love of Joy Division grew out of this moment, because he was making them seem really kind of awful and boring, which they probably could be if you heard them in the wrong state of mind. The room's arctic temperature didn't help, too. It was cold, I was hungry and lonely and all I had was a dude yapping at us in an egomaniacal torrent of pretention. It felt like I was in a scene out of a really weird, brainiac version of River's Edge, but this was before I realized there was a movie called River's Edge. (If you are living a scene out of River's Edge and you don't realize the movie's existence, you just think you are living in the most hopeless life ever. The lack of awareness of a previous cinematic representation approximating your life just makes your reality seem kind of bizarre and horribly singular. Which is why it was such a relief to discover that a movie like River's Edge even existed.)

+ Continue reading "A Day in the Life: Our Most Compliment-Attracting Pieces of Clothing"

Tags: black leather jackets, boys, champagne, Chuck Klosterman, depression, dresses, Faith No More, girls, go-go dancers, Jenny Lewis, Joy Division, River's Edge, seagulls, teenhood, tiger skirts, Tomorrow Never Knows, Venice Beach

Wednesday , February 24, 2010

Dear Reader, Please Help Me Stop Loving Pretty Ballerina's Beautiful Flag Ballet Flats

You know how usually when you see something you can't have, it kills your soul a little but then within three to five days some self-preserving amnesia sets in and then everything's okay again?* I was sure as eggs is eggs that that's how it was all gonna go down with those Pretty Ballerina's ballet flats with the flags - but it's been at least a week since DailyCandy thrust the beautiful shoes into my life and I'm still not over it! And they're $275, and I can't, and it hurts. Make it stop hurting? Tell me something terrible about these impossible creatures? Like that they hate The Clash, or unabashedly support the Tea Party movement?

Or, you know, you could just buy them for me. That's also an option.

*To clarify: I'm only talking about shoes, not like boys or cakes.

Tags: ballet flats, boys, cakes, dealbreakers, desperation, self-preserving amnesia

Tuesday , February 23, 2010

Another Imaginary Shopping Spree: Tess Giberson's Fall 2010 RTW Show

Many, many moons and nogoodforme redesigns ago, I babbled on and on about Tess Giberson's show in 2003 (!!), so you can imagine how stoked I was to see her return with her namesake line to the latest Fashion Week in New York. Taking a few years to have a baby and design for TSE has kind of toughed up Giberson, but she still has that serene, unforced quality to her work that I loved in the first place. I'd wear everything in this line: it's kind of a perfect symbiosis of my Helmut Lang and A Detacher side. It's as if Giberson added a homespun air to the minimalist/urban template or skinny leggings, cool jacket and simple shirt. I couldn't be more thrilled or lustful about these clothes, and I WANT EVERYTHING. (Kat)

Tags: fashion shows, Tess Giberson

Thursday , February 18, 2010

First Look: Alexa Chung for Madewell

I don't really know who Alexa Chung is. Which is ironic, cuz just the other day LJ and I were telecon-ing about how it really gets our respective goats when people are totally unaware of bonkers-ubiquitous celebs. "HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHO SPENCER PRATT IS???" we roared through gnashed teeth, crushing beer cans with our bare right hands. But, Alexa Chung - she's on MTV? She's British? She's annoying? I'm 87 percent sure all these things are true. But I'm 187 percent sure she's collabo-ing with Madewell, as my new Twitter buddy/fave new blog Mama's A Rolling Stone just posted a post about the upcoming collection. A lil looksie:

+ Continue reading "First Look: Alexa Chung for Madewell"

Tags: Alexa Chung, blogs we love, crushing beer cans with your bare hands, fashion, Madewell, Spencer Pratt

Saturday , December 5, 2009

Love: Boy Meets Girl (A Q&A With Designer Stacy M. Igel)

Boy Meets Girl and its distinctively adorable logo first caught my eagle eye on "Gossip Girl," when Jenny Humphrey slings a Boy Meets Girl tote on a clothing rack on one of the episodes where she interns for Eleanor Waldorf. (Is it just me, or do I kind of miss Eleanor Waldorf and Wallace Shawn as the stepfather on the show? And does anyone remember the first Eleanor Waldorf on the pilot, the less clucky-motherly one?) Even a committed Goth appreciator and dark side denizen couldn't resist such playful, sweet and beautifully fun his-n-hers profile silhouettes -- I carted a canvas Boy Meets Girl logo tote everywhere till it finally died an ignoble death in the middle of a flash thunderstorm last summer. The logo and company is the love-and-brainchild of designer Stacy M. Igel, a fellow hardworking Chicago girl (like yours truly) who found her way to NYC and began building her company slowly but steadily. It's been eight years since she founded her company, and she's been expanding from t-shirts, totes and tops into a full collection of clothing that retains the lighthearted spirit while adding a bit of sophistication and citified sharpness in the line and detailing. (Seriously -- have you seen that leather jacket? It's off the hook, and only $154! Crikey, that's an insane price point!) It goes without saying that I think all three members of the nogoodforme troika could sport something from the line and look completely awesome in our own way. (I think I would give Liz a hoodie, LJ the taker/giver t-shirt, I want the honeybee one or the sweater, and we can all Sisterhood-of-the-Traveling-Pants it with that leather jacket.) She's doing it ethically as possible, too, using organic and sustainable materials and manufacturing whenever she can, and she's a big supporter of various causes. (I also have to say, it's great to see a fashion company that shows its clothing on girls who look cute and normalish and not emaciated.) Read on to learn more about Stacy, how she came up with her genius logo and her dream to be on Oprah, that patron saint of hardworking Midwestern girls everywhere.

+ Tell us a little bit about yourself -- where you grew up, were you a creative kid, what was your first fashion memory? How did you become interested in fashion? Did you always know you would do fashion or was this path a surprise for you?

I grew up in Chicago. I told my mom at the age of 4 that I would only wear dresses to nursery. I also told her I would move to NYC and start my own fashion line. So I began my life as a fashionista at the ripe old age of 4! I outfitted my pre-K classmates and staged fashion shows in my school cafeteria. I even made and sold charm necklaces to my friends in 1st grade! My mom was an entrepreneur and I believe it was transported to me in the womb! It's been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember...

+ How did Boy Meets Girl get started? How did you get the idea? What was the initial vision, and how has it grown and changed since its beginnings?

I designed and sewed some of my first tops in my NYC apartment that I shared with my college girlfriends. I was sewing and designing for holiday gifts, birthdays and special events in my free time while working full time as a designer at Izod. I kept my poor roommates up while sewing all night. But they were amazing and always my best promoters. They would wear my stuff out and inevitably someone would ask them, "Where d'ya get that"? From that point I started taking orders from friends of friends.

I knew I wanted to design a different line that spoke to an energetic, edgy and playful young woman with a confident and carefree spirit. During the process of creating this vision I knew I needed a logo that encapsulated that girl. One day my boyfriend at the time (now my husband) invited me to his parent's house for dinner and I noticed a picture frame containing silhouettes of their three children from when they were younger. My parents had a similar picture of my mom, my sister and I when we were about the same age. I thought about us and how we still both had these young, playful, carefree versions of ourselves inside of us and I knew right then and there my brand would be called Boy Meets Girl® and that I'd use our silhouettes for the logo.

In the beginning I was working out of my apartment. I was sewing, selling, promoting (even my first "showroom" photo shoot for Lucky Magazine's "One to Watch" was actually shot in my bedroom), shipping and doing basically everything by myself. Slowly (and I mean really slowly), I was able to afford to bring on a small team but we still worked out of my house. When I was finally able to afford my own space it was the size of a closet in Union City, New Jersey. I took a small bus from Port Authority everyday with my computer on my back to a rundown building with no running water. (The building has since been condemned!) Needless to say I appreciate my current space in the Garment District, complete with track lighting and a working elevator among other plush amenities! So that's how I've grown. I really have not changed all that much...I still love to create, it's just that now I am creating a larger and more complex collection with many more moving pieces and personnel involved.

+ Who's the ideal Boy Meets Girl customer? Who are you designing for?

She's an energetic, edgy and playful young woman with a confident and carefree spirit. She is an influencer/tastemaker who appreciates, but isn't defined by, trends. She is a doer - no wallflowers here. Life is not a dress rehearsal!

+ Boy Meets Girl has been spotted in shows and movies like Gossip Girl, Sex and The City and others. What would be the all-time ultimate movie or show that you'd love to see your clothes in?

A fashion show on OPRAH definitely! Oprah, can you hear me? Chicago girl here making waves in the fashion world. Have your people call me!

+ Who are your inspirations in terms of life, fashion, business, etc?

I am inspired by so many different types of people. If I had to pick a designer, right now, it would have to be Coco Chanel. "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." I believe absolutely in this quote.

As far as business mentors/role models: Elie Tahari, Zandra Rhodes and Elsa Klensch, all of whom I've worked for, were all hard workers even after they'd "made it" so that was an eye opener for me. I was smart enough to recognize that the hard workers were usually the individuals who got the big opportunities in life. They were also the ones who were prepared to capitalize on those opportunities.

+ What's your personal favorite item from your line, and why?

I love my faux leather jacket & reversible vest. Not only are the affordable but they are also sexy while at the same time totally wearable. They look great over my signature Boy Meets Girl logo organic tees and they pair well with many of the BMG dresses too.

I also love my cotton/cashmere "confession" vest that is mixed with faux leather detailing and BMG snaps and my taker/giver v neck tee!

I am also really excited about what's coming out in Dec/Jan in stores. Check out the studded jersey blazer! (You can see pics from my recent fashion show too at www.boymeetsgirlusa.com)

+ Whose closet would you personally like to raid?

Kate Moss.

+ Tell us a beauty/style secret...

Beauty: I've tried all the other stuff but a simple tube of toothpaste is the absolute best remedy for preventing blemishes.
Style: you can take any old t-shirt and recycle it, making it new, by filling up your bathtub with pomegranate seeds, herbal teas or other natural juices. What you'll come out with will be a vibrant, environmentally conscious new look for yourself.

+ What are some of your all-time favorite musicians, books, movies, tv shows?

Musicians: Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Patti Smith, Santigold
Books: The Catcher in the Rye, The Fountain Head, The Hottest State
Movies: Singles, Harold and Maude, Airplane, Reality Bites
TV shows: My So Called Life, Dawson's Creek, Charlie Rose

+ What advice would you give to an aspiring fashion designer or entrepreneur? What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?

I learned the importance of hard work and customer service. There are a lot of amazing people in this world. While you may not always be the most creative, charming or brilliant person in the room, you can be the hardest working and most dedicated -- that is something that is totally within your own control. By working hard, my bosses took notice at my earlier jobs and my employees take notice now. It's leadership by example and I think it fosters loyalty and camaraderie.

Also I got this from a fortune cookie tonight and it fits in so well here:
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

+ Give us a hint of what's in store in the future for Boy Meets Girl...

Expect more cool collaborations. This year I collaborated with the Soho House to design fashion forward uniforms for the servers. I also joined forces with the Cooper Square Hotel to add to their brand-name selection of goods for sale in the hotel room mini-bars. I created an exclusive line for Urban Outfitters which sold in all UO stores and online this year. On the charity front, I developed a limited edition tee to help spread the word on saving the bees (please check out www.vanishingbees.com and http://vanishingbees.co.uk/about/sponsors_and_supporters/). I also joined forces with teen actress Sammi Hanratty to help fight bullying in schools (proceeds of the shirt sale go to www.bullybust.org) and Boy Meets Girl sponsored the Young Survival Coalition In Living Pink gala by providing BMG gift bags for 500 attendees. Two areas I would love to collaborate on for sure this year are shoes and hosiery!

Tags: awesome logos, Boy Meets Girl, hardworking midwestern girls, Oprah, Stacy M. Igel

Tuesday , November 17, 2009

Love: A Garment That Combines My Affection for Hoodies With My Affection for Physics

I missed the Imaginary Shopping Spree boat yesterday because, you know, I'm crazy. But if I had managed to not be stupid-busy-and-super-insomniac-y at the same time, I would have posted these hoodies by the charmingly named t-shirt label Ex-Boyfriend. Who doesn't love a hoodie? They're tomboyish and practical, and these in particular name-check some standard-issue heroes of physics in a beautifully simple and elegant typeface. (Now, if this hoodie was a super-citizen of Nerdsville, it'd mention Ed Witten, Garrett Lisi, Stephen Hawking and Lisa Randall. But I merely quibble here 'cause I'm nerdy about astrophysics...my thesis film has one as the main character!) At any rate, they're super nerdcore, but so am I obviously. They come in both dude and lady versions, which is sweet, and they're kind of perfect in a casual geek chic way.

(By the way, those interested in some kick-ass books on astrophysics would do well to check out Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions by Lisa Randall and Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. Nonreaders can Netflix the whole "Elegant Universe" tv series, hosted by Brian Greene...on par with my bizarre crush on Timothy Geithner, I have a weird crush on Brian Greene.)

Tags: astrophysics, geeks, hoodies, nerds

Wednesday , November 4, 2009

Love: Envelop

This is one of those sites that makes me rue the fact that I don't live in Europe! Belgium-based Envelop takes artist- and member-created graphics and patterns and applies them to all sorts of sundry articles: aprons, place mats, tote bags, basically anything that is a textile. Normally, you'd get a bunch of "I'M WITH STUPID" logos plastered on coffee mugs, but not with Envelop -- they vet their patterns, so everything has a certain level of visual quality. I have to say, the results are pretty stunning, especially if you have a strange fixation with really cool aprons like me. The site's fairly new so the selection may not be super-extensive (yet), and I'm waiting anxiously for someone to design a really cool duvet. But the site's relative youth (they're still in beta) just means there's more room for all you artist, illustrator and graphic designer types out there to become a member and submit your work. I'm only sad that I have only dollars and not euros, but they do ship worldwide. Still, if only I could live in Europe...

+ Continue reading "Love: Envelop"

Tags: aprons, artists, Envelop

Tuesday , September 29, 2009

Imaginary Shopping Spree: Huset Extravaganza

As we head into the last quarter of 2009, I like to revisit the intentions I set out for myself in the New Year and reevaluate depending on how my needs and desires have shifted, as needs and desires often do. Cultivated my inner Dita Von Teese? Check, right down to the super-hot lingerie and red lipstick. Simplicity and clarity? That's an ongoing project, and I don't mind making out like a conceptual artist to help me reach that total Zen-ness that will help me be a more beatific human being, bring beauty and justice to the world, and help nogoodforme in its quest for total world domination. The latest thing I have been into, having stumbled upon the idea while writing our epic series of entries on our Favorite Records Of All Time, is cultivating my inner Scandinavian. (Who knew enlightenment could come via Facebook quizzes?) Whether it's the Swedish concept of lagom or the Danish idea of hygge, I love the core of coziness, intimacy, modesty and practicality that seems to be a hallmark of the Scandinavian lifestyle -- who doesn't love those things, especially as winter approaches and all you want to do is cuddle up in your house with tea and wool socks in front of a fire? Yet this is also a region where doom/death/black metal thrives, where the nights get long as knives and people go fucking mental when they drink 'cause they just can't handle it. Cozy 'n happy AND dark 'n hedonistic? SIGN ME UP. Step one in cultivating my spiritual Scandinavian: coveting various objects of the remarkable design culture coming out of northern Europe, many superlative examples of which can be found at my new favorite website, Huset, one of the most kick-ass online shops devoted to the modern Scandinavian aesthetic awesome. I hunt this site like a polar bear hunts a seal in the Arctic circle: with fierce intensity and concentration because I WANT I WANT I WANT.

+ Continue reading "Imaginary Shopping Spree: Huset Extravaganza"

Tags: I DIE, I WANT, insanity, shopping, spiritually Scandinavian

Friday , June 26, 2009

Anna Sui's Gossip Girl-Themed Target Collection: I'm a Jenny-Serena-Vanessa Hybrid

So New York mag's fashion blog just posted something on Anna Sui's upcoming Gossip Girl-inspired Target collection, which'll be in stores and online September 13 to October 17. Target's styled each of the look-book looks based on one of the lead girls, thus revealing that I'm a Jenny-Serena-Vanessa hybrid and not at all a Blair. I was really hoping to be a Nate Archibald, but apparently that's not an option.

Anyway, the clothes:

(My faves, left to right: Jenny, Serena, Vanessa. And I actually really hate the Vanessa dress, but I'd so wear that vest.)

(These are all Blair. I sort of dig the dress to the right, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work out for me.)

(Jenny, Jenny, and Serena. These all kinda make me go "blecccchhhh" all over the place, so maybe I'm not a Jenny-Serena-Vanessa hybrid after all. Maybe I truly am Rufus Humphrey, just like my little sister said. Liz Barker: The "Lame '90s Dad" of nogoodforme.com.)

Tags: Anna Sui, being a lame '90s dad, Gossip Girl, Rufus Humphrey, Target

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