Fall 14 Skins–Leather and Suede

I'm seeing lots of texture out there.  I love leather, suede, fur, fluff, puff–all that shape and texture, the stuff that says, "Go on, pet me."  It's wildly seductive and often practical. I've put together a short list of "softies" from the Carlisle / Per Se collections that capture the trend.

Meet Our White Label
Portobello Suede Jacket
$1,395

Check out this Cognac suede number below. It has a detachable peplum that give you two jackets in one. It's peach-fuzz soft and the color is different, sort of a light oxblood.

Hello Cognac
$1,295

Black, quilted, leather, belted trench. A forever "spy chic" piece. 

Oracle (for the bond girl in you)
$1,495

Fluffy! A circle of the softest rex rabbit (sheared) fur to 

wrap and wrap and wrap around your neck.  Cozy!

Infinity $395

There's a lot of good stuff in this magazine!

I was psyched when editor Carolyn Worthington of Healthy Aging magazine asked my to write the spring fashion feature for her magazine.  It would feature the Carlisle, Per Se and Per Se White Label collections that I work with every day.  These clothes marry well with my favorite theme, travel + style. It's fashion easy to love. The biggest problem my clients are having this season? Deciding what not to buy.

What I didn't anticipate was how much I was going to enjoy the rest of the magazine once it was published.  First, Sheryl Crow is on the cover.  I'm a fan.  Then there's an article on castles including the one in Downton Abby. I'm a ridiculous fan.  There's an article about a couple who reinvented themselves, horsey style.  Plus lots of food, wine and recipes and, oh, something on tai chi...

Check out Healthy Aging here.

The Pattern Maker

When designing or crafting is a group effort, there always seems to be the unsung hero.  A behind the scenes guy that only the relevant few know about. I found myself awe struck by the pattern makers at the Carlisle design facility.  They quietly cipher a design, engineer it, coax it, manage it.  The end game is a garment that actually works on your body.  It fits, bends, moves and stretches. Repeats in the fabric are managed, pattern pieces are laid out keeping economy, fit and beauty in mind… Most pattern makers have a design back story of their own.  They come from a family of tailors or they obsessively made doll clothes as a child.

Here's a video of the Carlisle / Per Se pattern makers at work.

Creating Per Se

I recently toured the Carlisle/Per Se design and production offices in New York City.  Obviously, I'm committed to the brand.  I wear the clothes. I sell the clothes. I believe in the quality. I love the design. Now, I love the clothes all the more! I fully understand and appreciate what it takes to create the collections. Besides that, it's just really cool to be able to wear the clothes of a designer you've met and gotten to know!

Here's a few video clips and some pictures of Susan Klope, the designer of Per Se. You get a feel for how she works and her level of passion for all things that make up a garment; lace, weaves, yarns and buttons.  Look carefully, several of the background pieces will end up on next winter's Per Se runway!

Tuesday Night I Saw Puglia, Italy on West 16th Street

The lead singer raps about tomato sauce, wine, parmigiano, olive oil.  The band gives him a funky base sound to dish out his rhymes.  They’re on stage at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan and behind them is a movie featuring food saturated with color.  Food that slops, pours, spills, splits and dances on the big screen.  What is he poetic about?  Puglia, a region in Italy that is the heel of their boot, sexier that a Louboutin pump, beloved for its olives, full-bodied red wine and coastal beauty.

This is how Latitude and ENIT (The Italian Government Tourist Board) spread the word about Puglia.  They have my attention!  I’m awed when the machismo lead singer moves from microphone to table to make pasta from scratch.  He starts with eggs and flour, rolls the dough several times through a pasta machine, boils it and tosses it with vegetables and some sort of light sauce, also made from scratch, in less than five minutes!!!

If this is what Puglia is on West 16th Street, it must be amazing in Italy! 

Thanks you Latitude and ENIT for a very creative teaser to this region, I’d like to pack my bags right now and head to Puglia for the real thing! 

Christina Binkley's Reporting On the Comeback of the Power Suit

I'm a Binkley fan.  I read her fashion column in the WSJ whenever I can and I'm usually both informed and impressed.  She can write about fashion without sounding vapid or snobbish, not easy. In her article The Leaner, Meaner Power Suit she give a great little crash course on the history of the power suit for women and peppers the article with some good statistics as well.  Apparently some 3.9 billion women's suit will be purchased this year, their market share up 27%.

Ahead of the trend, Carlisle / per se has been doing some great suiting for the last several seasons that is "powerful" and provocative, for a woman who is, well... a woman.  Clients are usually scared of being matchy, matchy, so I've been breaking suits up, but lately I'm feeling like this is less of an issue.  Executive women are actually gravitating towards the whole suit.  Finally!

Go Get Arty

Fuel

Gallery hop NoHo, lower east side–After fuel at La Colombe walk down Mott street to Broom Street and view the Esther Rosa installation at S Artspace Gallery.       Ms. Rosa has done a series of calming abstract paintings that are layered, organic in feeling and materials and decorator friendly, in that they'll work in most any room.  I'm sure that's not the reason to buy art (and most artists would sniff at me for saying so), but it's always something that comes to my mind, "Can I live with this? Will it work in my living room? Will I always love it?"  

Rosa's large sculpture made entirely from coffee filters, all dyed to varying degrees using coffee, and of several different sizes, is weird, wonderful and completely unexpected!  This was what I wanted my friends to see.  I think it is a daring piece to host and bodes well for creative happenings we can anticipate from this gallery.    

Gallery owners Elizabeth Rosso and Catherine Testorf make the art, the space, the experience that much more inviting with their enthusiasm for this particular artists and the others they have, and will be showing.  

Side note: At another gallery (un-named here) we practically had to use a cattle prod to get the gal to tell us about what we were seeing...

Walk east to Woodward Art and check out "DETAIL."  It's no surprise that I loved Susan Breen's  little cut-out painter's palette dresses, charming.  In fact, it seemed this show had a little something for each of us to relate to and appreciate and want!

Question: When did Orchard Street become gallery land? I bought my first business suit there from a Hasid who knew about fit and sensible style.  In the late 80s I cut the skirt too short, but the slim jacket, a woven tweed, looks like one from Ralph Lauren's fall collection. Ha!     

  

Friday at the MET

I think the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC) would be on my top ten list of places I like to be. It's an art feast and I am eating it up! Often, especially on cold, winter (even though it's March) days, I want to ditch New York and go back to Cali. But a half day looking at what mere humans are able to create, is incredibly satisfying, inspiring and uplifting.  I leave the MET saying, I love New York and I'm not even in a Woody Allen film.   

James Tissot, The Shop Girl

Today I saw Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity.  The name alone tells you why I wanted to go!  It was a fabulous collection of mostly full body portraits by celebrated impressionist. Many of the painting were from the d'Orsay, so it felt like a museum visit in Paris. 

There was mention that the impressionists were enamored of their own era. Thereby paining, what we would call today, lifestyle pictures, paintings rich in detail and expression of everyday life. A curious thought. Am I enamored of the era I'm living in?  Perhaps I am, yes and no... 

Tissot's works were my favorite.  Surprising, because he was the least impressionistic. 

A silly take away; I need more stripes in my wardrobe! 

  

My girlfriend and I followed up our pretend Paris visit with paninis and Champaign at Sant Ambroeus.  I had an answer to my earlier musing... Yes, at this place, I am enamored with my own era!  The impressionists would have captured a buzzing, delicious, sophisticated, fashionable moment in my very own time!   

Where I Went 2012

Editor and friend Max Hartshorn of GoNOMAD asked me to submit to his Where We Went in 2012 article.  Here's what I came up with: 

I love to pack!  The anticipation of going somewhere and packing just the right thing makes me feel like I've aced an exam!  As a fashion stylist, I've made a whole profession out of counseling  people on just what to wear for any occasion at home or abroad.  When I travel, I'm reporting on the fashion scene and finding ways to absorb stylish ideas to use in my styling work with clients.  

As for styling work, I'm a stylist at the by-appointment Carlisle/Per Se Showroom in Greenwich CT. and I travel there almost daily. Just 40 minutes from Grand Central (NYC), Greenwich is considered one of the toniest towns in America!  Visit the Bruce Museum, the shoe department at Saks–fab, window-shopping up and down the Avenue, and of course the Ralph Lauren mansion store.  I like Morello or Terra for lunch or drinks or sometimes I'll grab a sandwich and just sit and watch the Sound (Long Island). 

Oxbow Public Market

Another cool place, on the opposite coast, to be seen and check out the scene is Napa.  My article "Take 5 in Napa" for Travelgirl Magazine described a fall girlfriend getaway sans car.  Take the Wine Train up the valley and fulfill your Agatha Christie dreams or visit the Oxbow Public Market where cool meets country. While most visitors to Napa are elbowing to get a reservation at The French Laundry, we opted for Cuvée Napa the atmosphere and clientele made for excellent style watching and the food and wine pairings were extraordinary. 

No winter is complete with out buckling up boots, ski boots!  I have a printed/laminated list of everything one needs to wear and bring skiing. If I didn't like clothes so much, I'm not sure I would love the sport!  We skied local this year.  Jiminy Peak and Butternut ski resorts in the Berkshires made enough snow to satisfy visitors while mother nature occasionally chipped in.  The fashion scene on these hills is well, non existent... My new Montclair ski jacket needs a trip to the Alps!  

Early summer in Portland Maine is all about–light houses, adirondack chairs, lobster... This stylist put on full lobsterman gear and boarded a lobster fishing boat to catch those gnarly creatures and catch them, she did!  Lunch was my lobster catch dockside.  Next was a stone massage at The Inn by the Sea's spa.  This classic, contemporary Inn is Maine at it's best.  Wear sweeping linens, straw hat and espadrilles.  You'll feel like you belong in a Winslow Homer painting!  What's more you can visit Homer's Studio while in Portland.  Follow that up with a food and wine tour of this unexpectedly hip New England town. 

Estrella Spa at the Viceroy Palm Springs

Palm Springs is HOT in August!  Skimpy summer frocks, a must!  The town is tourist free and there are off-season deals to be found.  The Viceroy Hotel makes for feeling fabulous.  It's ultra chic, goove-a-licious–everything the Rat Pack had in mind when they made this town their playground.  Make sure to visit the "design district" and stop by Flow Modern Design store.  If hiking is your thing, the desert makes for interesting vistas and a fizzy cocktail post hike is deserving and appreciated!  My choice? A margarita of course!

Tango, Narni, Italy

Smack in the middle of Umbria, which is smack in the middle of Italy, is a small medieval town called Narni.  Narni hosts the Narnia Arts Academy, a cultural/artistic festival in July.  One unexpected offering in the "Culture and Leisure" program at the festival is Tango Dancing.  Ladies, imagine tango dancing with a handsome Italian in tight pants.  What's more, he's teaching you how to do it, no experience required.  But perhaps food turns you on more.  If so, you can take regional cooking classes at the festival as well.  Classes are held in local restaurants and medieval taverna.

The Culture and Leisure programs has offerings for one or two weeks and includes excursions to Rome, Perugia, Assisi, Spoleto and more. Every manor of accommodations are available and at prices way below "big city stays" for that time of year.

This medieval hill town is pumping with music, dance and art during the festival (actually, most of the year).  Stroll from one side of Narni to the other in about 10 minutes, do it at night, under the glow of street lanterns, with your real (or pretend) tango partner!

Side note:  Narnia is the Latin name for Narni and it is from this city that C.S. Lewis took inspiration for his book "Chronicles of Narnia," which has nothing to do with tango.

 

Hands Turned On

I'm sure you can relate to being lost in a foreign country and having trouble deciding if you’re excited, or terrified! There is a perfect T-shirt out there that shows and says just what to do–breath!  Hands Turned On has fitted Ts that say things like “Excitement Without Breath is Fear, “ “Ten Seconds To Center” and “Practice Extreme Gratitude.” These soft cotton tops come in sherbet colors and have handprints on them, which display where to put your own hands to practice self healing (or self calming) techniques. The shirts come with a nifty hangtag that guides you in performing energy healing/breathing practices that are unique to each shirt.

Renowned energy medicine healer Dr. Ann Marie Chiasson wanted to launch a product that would give customers easy access to the use of energy medicine anywhere! The shirts allow the wearer to jump into a healing practice without going to a workshop, class, healer or clinician. Besides that, they look cool, travel well, feel good on and spread a great message. The shirts are available online at the company’s website, www.handsturnedon.com.

Summer in the Showroom

Hi There,

I thought I'd show you some terrific dresses from Carlisle / per se's summer collection.  This season my clients will receive $200 off on a purchase of three or more pieces.  I'm always interested in having groups of women up to the showroom to see what kind of spectacular service we provide and to taste how much fun shopping privately with friends can be. If you'd like to collaborate on a small event, please get in touch with me–wine, mimosas, appetizers and fashion–could be fun!

Now for some dresses–easy, breezy–one piece + jewelry = your done, dressed and fab!

Wrap it up!

Sassy!

Grrr!

A Little Audry

My Favorite!

Can you hear the drum beat?!

Swish!

Easter Parade!

My Fair Gent

A few weeks ago I roped my friend LB (you don't really have to rope her though, she's up for almost anything) into to seeing an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  I knew I would enjoy the exhibit, Cecil Beaton, the New York Years, but I didn't know what to expect from the museum.  It's a beautiful landmark building undergoing an $85 million expansion on 103rd street, a gem.  The Beaton exhibit is big enough to spend time at each photo and illustration, reading about the fabulous life of this accomplished, photographer/designer, but not too big that you just can't take it all in.

I think most of us know that Beaton was the designer behind the costumes in both the movie and stage version of My Fair Lady.  He started his career in fashion photography for all the big New York mags, chronicling the most popular designers of the 30s, Mainbocher, Schiaparelli.  His shots were very theatrical and staged, a technique that is actually getting more popular today.  Beaton then turned his focus toward design; interiors, costumes, sets.  He lived in and redesigned suites at posh New York City hotels, including the Pierre and the Sherry Netherland.

This exhibit flew in the face of all those well meaning career advisors that encourage creative people to pick just one thing, and do only that, and that is what I liked about it best!   Now through February 20th.

Circle Back to the Real Stuff

The results of Liz Tailor’s estate sale were staggering.  I went to the preview exhibit and was stunned by the massive quantity of things one person could acquire over the course of a lifetime–purely for adornment. Rooms and floors of stuff, stuff, stuff! Former husbands and friends seemed to interpret Liz’s taste differently.  Jackson’s gifts were slightly ridiculous, Todd’s, fairy princess, Burton, serious duchess, and Liz’s own designs were oversized and exotic, like she raided an Egyptian tomb.  

I bet scores of designers are getting out their jewel colored pencils as an ode to Liz.  I’m already reaching for more serious, smaller jewelry, the real stuff, not that I have much!  But I predict that’s a trend waiting to happen.  Hopefully we won’t see jewel studded bolero jackets on the runway for fall 12, but I wouldn’t be surprised, perhaps minus the shoulder pads and riot of colors. As for caftans, bring them on!  Then you can eat your fill of guacamole and margaritas and still look poolside chic. Oh but wait, Liz did get sort of fat… but you can always fit into jewelry…

See the World on Broome Street

East Broome Street in NYC was our quick world tour as my friend Brigitte and I took in Swiss artist Regis Colombo’s exciting imagery at sohotel – Art Space Gallery.  Each work is dedicated to a city captured in a collage of nuance both subtle and bold. Entitled “Transparencies” Colombo works his magic with camera and mouse crafting layer upon layer of images that dance together in vibrant color and black and white. Now through December 18^th the show is mounted in a raw, yet inviting street space of the sohotel.

A perfect compliment to the show is a drink next door at Bar Coffee, The Randolph at Broome.  Here, layer upon layer of booze and bitters make a tasty, colorful work of art you can drink! 

La Dolce Vita at Eataly

If you’re looking for sweets, Italian sweets, sweet living, then and now… Go to Eataly, NYC.  There, you’ll find the sweet life, “La Dolce Vita” in every direction. Eataly is the perfect stage to play out almost any Italian fantasy, especially with regard to food and wine, but it also celebrates La Dolce Vita–love, life, energy, joy. It hums.  Be sure to look up.  Hanging from bars suspended from the ceiling is this wonderful exhibition curated by Marco Panella.  Stars at play and work in Italy during this glamorous decade are on display in a captivating black and white pictorial.  Toast to the likes of Tyrone Power, Mamie Van Doren and, no surprise, Sophia Loren.

Don't miss it. 

Rachel Moore, Sugar to Plum

Executive Director of American Ballet Theater Rachel Moore came up to the Greenwich Carlisle / per se Showroom not too long ago to check out the fall lines.  I knew the brand would be a great fit for her. When I asked her what her M.O. was in terms of her style and wardrobe choices she said, “I always want to straddle being polished and professional, but not boring.” And because she represents a world-class ballet, she’s got to be slightly “arty” without being too funky or “downtown.”  Imagine, in any given day Rachel might go from meeting with bankers, to a donor’s luncheon to a gala performance.

How does she do it?  She has no apologies about having to change clothes!  Better to be dressed exactly right than having to hodge-podge something together that isn’t perfect for the day or the evening function. This definitely flies in the face of the day-to-evening how-to dressing every fashion journalist has written about (including me!).

If you’re a former ballet dancer, you’re a friend to practice and preparation. Rachel’s packing regime sounds like trying to synchronize the intricate choreography of the four cygnets dance in Swan Lake! She explained, “I’ve given up the goal of traveling light.  I know my schedule before I begin to pack and I literally plot out every outfit before I leave.”  She creates a spreadsheet of what to wear from event to event, including evening bags, shoes–the works. Perhaps she could economize in her packing a bit, but there is no way she’s going with just a carry-on and besides that, as she said, “I want my stuff!”  Who can’t relate to that!

About dressing and the execute man, both Rachel and I agree; they’ve got it easy.  A nice suit takes a guy from boardroom to cocktail party and it’s all good. According to Rachel, “Men are not terribly judgmental of other men, but they are really judgmental of women.  They know when a woman definitely “gets it,” when she’s making a statement that is polished and professional.  Think of Diane Sawyer, she’s feminine, but their is no phony baloney.”  

Shown here is one selection Rachel made at the Greenwich Showroom.  She fit beautifully into everything and it was difficult for us to narrow down the choices into a few outfits.  I think you’ll agree it’s arty without being too funky and it says I mean business, no phony baloney.

Mr. Client Needs New Suits

Mr. Client wanted me to meet him at my.suit in the city (NYC) to see how his new custom suit looked and fit. I was intrigued by my.suit's website and Mr. Client had said he was reasonably pleased with the fabric and design choices offered. I was given a quick tour of the store before Mr. Client arrived by Product Coordinator Shao Yang. She explained that there are two tiers of fabrics, both in quality and price points. The mills for my.suit are in Mexico and the suits are made there as well. Mexico's fabric pedigree is rather "quarter horse," not exactly thoroughbred. BUT I liked the fabrics, the hand was very good, the choices great! And the prices were pleasing enough to get me over my fabric snobbery, not Italian, not French, sniff.

The big test came when Mr. Client put on his suit. It was nice, a two button, double vented jacket with flat front pants. Mr. Client had chosen a bright orange lining, sweet! The pants needed tweaking, although not much.

We then collectively, with strong opinions from me, chose three more suits. I was giddy with the freedom to actually design the suits. One has full rein to make an abundance of choices, even down to what thread color you'd like on a button hole. Mr. Client's profession doesn't beg for green seersucker or a navy jacket with orange piping. He's not a JT or GC (guess), but he had found the right place to get something perfectly "suited" (forgive me) for him.

L'Amour Fou

I saw the Yves movie the other night at the Pelham Picture House. Unfortunately they were playing the movie in their classroom space, which I’m sorry to say, is not a good place to watch any movie. Even a great movie is painful to watch in folding chairs, okay they were padded, but still we had to get up and stretch at one point. The screen is too close and too high and frankly the space just felt odd. I was excited to get Tom to the Picture House (finally) and I was apoplectic about seeing L’Amour Fou, so imagine our disappointment when we found ourselves alone in the “classroom.” Perhaps we could have done more with this circumstance... but well, we didn’t.

As for L’Amour Fou, sorry gals, it’s a rental. There isn’t much fashion in it, however the interiors are deliciously drippy, I thought so anyway, Tom found them to be “High Frog Clutter.” The story surrounding Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s art collection and relationship is significant and understanding the life and creative process of yet another “tortured” artist never seems to tire. However there were lots of cliche shots– Berge looking out a window at an ocean view with a worried, longing face... Geez.

While you’re waiting for it to come out on disc, do see the Bill Cunningham movie and Valentino darlings, both grand.

Summer Carlisle / per se

In my introduction about the Carlisle / per se spring lines I talked about how impressed I was with the clothes, the fabrication and workmanship, awesome! The "Summer" collections are cool and I'd love for friends and clients to come up to the Showroom and see these breezy pieces and find out what shopping there is all about. Below explains how the Greenwich Carlisle / per se Showroom shopping is different from "in home" shopping and store shopping.

Sizes: The Showroom has multiple sizes available in each piece. Granted, if you are shopping late in the season your size might be sold out. (Sizes run 0-18)

No Delayed Gratification: You like it, you buy it, you take it!

Fit: A really good seamstress is on premise to make things fit your body perfectly AND that service is free of charge!

Fast Fashion: I can have a dressing room set up and ready for you in advance. We'll talk about what you're after and I'll have sizes and styles ready for you to try on the minute you walk in the door.

Door to Door: Carlisle delivers pieces that stayed behind for tailoring to your door (or porch, or patio)!

House Calls: I can pull things from the Showroom in your size and drop them by your house to try. You drop the "no goes" back at my house. OR we can have an "in home" styling session–different, more fun, a little more money.

Styling: Here's the best part... I've been a fashion stylist for years. I've dressed celebrities, politicians, homemakers, talk show hosts and rock stars; everyone from Cindy Crawford to Whitney Houston to Midori to Natalie Merchant to Guns and Roses. I've dressed models for beauty advertising, editorial and lifestyle shoots. I'm very plain speaking and I know what looks good and what doesn't! You can take or leave my advice, but I WILL give it to you and as long as we're at the Showroom, it's free!

Regret Not!: If something just isn't working for you (and you should love it to keep it), you can return it to the Showroom–no questions, no explanations, money back.

The Skinny on Price: Bargain shopping, it's not. There are no wracks, bins or stacks to sift through. You are not a stock girl. Rather, it's a bit like shopping at a salon depicted in an old movie (but the sales girl isn't trying to steal your husband). Again, the fabrics are from mills in Italy and France. The same ones used by Oscar, Donna and Chanel and the pieces are "built" in Hong Kong. Soooo it's "investing" in fine wardrobe pieces. Dresses, jackets/coats are $450 to $700, skirts and pants about $300, tops $150 to $250.

So I'll call you or you call me (or email) and lets set a date for you to come shop or just check it out. For a quick look-see, links are below, but remember, this isn't everything!

http://www.persecollection.com/collections/summer2011/runway/

http://www.carlislecollection.com/collections/summer2011/runway/

To those of you who have already shopped with me, come see and feel "summer," and please spread the word about your experience.

To those of you finding out about Carlisle / per se for the first time, welcome!