What has Music for Lovers done for you lately?

This week's Lover is Janet Jackson, whose baby-faced mid-eighties period is my absolute fave. "What Have You Done for Me Lately" appeared on Control, her third album. Note the appearance of the equally baby-faced Paula Abdul, whose real talk seems to be the catalyst for Janet dancing out her feelings - an appropriate bit of casting since she choreographed this video. Put that in your pipe and smoke it the next time you catch her nutty rhapsodizing on American Idol. Paula know how to move.

There are some no-foolin' late-eighties looks in here: roomy blazers, long, belted oxfords - the slightly-oversized menswear vibe that always works when paired with feminine accents. Janet and co. rocked the spilly, sky-high ponytails, but I might update the look with teased, Brigitte Bardot tresses and scaled-down door knockers.

Love to Love You, Baby

Friends, we had such a delightful time at our Saturday salon. Gregarious guests grabbed gorgeous garments and gabbed with gamines and gentlemen. How better to spend a humid September afternoon than surrounded by beautiful clothes and friends? Seeing everyone filled our little hearts with joy. Let's swoon over vintage again sometime soon!

Peep more transcendent photos and kind words at The President Wears Prada and the Anti-DC.

Get To It

Extra, extra! The Sonic Circuits Experimental Music Festival is going on all week! Bend your ears and minds, buddies.


(A David Adjaye-designed prefab home in East London. Pic via inhabit.)

Monday, clickety-do-dah over to Pandahead Magazine to view the brand spanking new issue. Excitement severe!

Thursday, architect David Adjaye speaks at the National Building Museum.

Music abounds on Friday night, with fellow travelers Food For Animals playing the Velvet Lounge and Jason Perlmutter gracing Moneytown (along with resident DJ Nitekrawler) at Dahlak.

Saturday, hit up the Small Press Expo, America's premiere independent cartooning and comic arts festival, and peep a panel discussion with Joost Swarte. (We love the clean, bright assertiveness of his many New Yorker illustrations.)

Sunday is the final day of the 2008 All Roads Film Festival, a National Geographic initiative that showcases work of and about underrepresented minority and indigenous cultures worldwide.

Sarah Palin: Not Speaking Our Language

Robin Givhan nails it.

Listopad Sneak Peak: Fall 08 Part II

Here's the last of it--you'll have to personally come out to see the rest!

Listopad Sneak Peak: Fall 08

We've posted some pics already, but think you vintage lovers deserve more. Here are just some of the pieces we will be sharing with you at our party on Saturday. Remember, we hunt high and low through many avenues to find these treasures for you so they're one-of-a-kind!

First up: accessories-





p.s. we also have three (3!!!) pairs of vintage YSL heels that will be available Saturday

Handmade's Tale

Hey buddies.


(kg + ab)

We're really excited for Crafty Bastards.


(elloh)

Many creative-type extraordinaires will be gracing our one-horse town this weekend, bearing boothloads of dazzling (and sometimes felt-y) wares. Read on and learn more about a few vendors that we went out of our way to stalk.

Megan Auman lives in Jonestown, PA, and does quiet, sexy exercises with steel, somehow turning it into this beautifully rhythymic, sculptural jewelry. "When I started working in steel," Megan tells us, "it just clicked."



"I work mainly in wire, and I love the welding process because at jewelry scale it has an intimate quality, like drawing or embroidery." She adds: "I started researching floral patterned textiles in grad school, and that imagery has inspired a lot of my current designs."



We are just oob-sessed with the repetitive quality of her work. We can't stop staring at these earrings.

Next: MICA graduate Val Lucas of Ellicot City, MD, masterminds Bowerbox Press, a business platform for her exquisite crafted books and tactile print designs.

"I treat all my handbound books as little sculptures," she says. "If I could, I would do every step of every process myself - even down to casting the type that I print from." While space constraints prevent her from doing all the work herself, she says, "It's magical to start out with a ream of paper, bookboard, type, and an idea, and end up with a finished book."



"As soon as I walked into the shop," Val says of taking her first letterpress class, "full of cases of tiny type, big old machinery, and the smell of ink, I knew that I was in the right place."



Val can make pretty much anything your heart desires - "If you want a journal with Helsinki on the front, just ask!" she says. She's currently working on a book of her prints. Excitement! We really can't resist her artisanal reverence to process and the clean beauty of her finished product.

Fall Template

(Mociun's Drill Skirt at Standard Deviation)

Note: Yes, it is possible to look this cute and still brave a stroll through Malcolm X Park in the middle of January. Just do as Mociun do with layers upon layers of wool-y goodness.

Goodwallop

I sidled up to Maria when the fashion show ended, weaving my way through the throngs of beauty-hunters turned loose on what was probably the first pop-up Goodwill store to grace the French Embassy. My eyes were trained on the beaded confection dangling from her arm. "Ooo," I murmured, "you got it." I pulled back the collar to look for evidence of its origin. "Handmade," she asserted, reading my mind. Peering inside the dress, I examined the nude expanse of its lining, unadulterated by the mark of a mass manufacturer. Of course, I thought.

Five minutes prior to this, I had encountered Svetlana among the racks - "I'm just looking for that beaded dress!" she'd exclaimed. "Me too!" I cried. "I just want to see it up close!"

Five minutes prior to that, the show had just ended. Cath and I were still in our seats, taking in all in. Maria, sitting behind us, leaned forward. "Which look was your favorite?" Cath didn't hesitate for a moment. "The beaded one. With the sleeves."

It had been about 20 minutes since we'd all seen it for the first time.



Can I even verbalize how gorgeous it was up close? The fabric hung perfectly; the beads were iridescent, tiny, and painstakingly applied. By hand. What is this dress? It just appeared out of the ether - unique, artful, universally stylish, its origin a permanent mystery. This is why we hunt, folks. This is what we are hunting for.



The blogosphere salivates. (Check out the pretty and sweet Ms. Anti-DC in the background -- we are working on making her Ms. Pro-DC;-)

Many, many thanks to Em for the invite, to Mark Silva for the photos, and of course, to Goodwill for the incredible, indispensible service that they provide to the community.

Get To It

Get scholarly on Monday during the Graduate and Professional School Fair at GW. Dorksville, you say? Whatever. If you're just tuning in, I am an avid nerd and legitimately excited for this event.

Get serious on Tuesday when Dan Higgs plays at the Velvet Lounge. Never have such scary songs been so soothing.

Get wild on Wednesday when These Are Powers play at Civilian Art Projects with the Apes and Food for Animals. See above flier for further vibe details.

Get on Facebook on Thursday and join the Listopad Facebook Group! We are so very plugged in.

Get hungry on Friday at the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church's Greek Festival outside Baltimore. There will be FOOD.

Get the most excited you've ever been on Saturday because Listopad is having a party! Jiggle that!

Get crafty on Sunday at Crafty Bastards. (Keep your eyes peeled for a more extensive post on this later in the week!)

Get On Up

Dudes...and maybe girls: You MUST head out to DC's very own streetwear mini-mall this weekend because "For the Greater Good" just opened alongside Commonwealth and Stussy.

Inspiration: L'Amant

"L'Amant" is a highly stylized film, though the visuals are very simple. Colonialism seeps through the picture, and class and race relations are sweated out in the heat of Vietnam in the '20s. But seriously, only watch this film if you are comfortable with older man + teenager sex (full frontal) and prostitution.



Anyway, on to the clothes. The unnamed protagonist (Jane March) can't really afford clothes, so she marches around the entire film (a span of maybe a year) in two outfits. One pair of shoes! It's gorgeous, though, and totally works. First off, the shoes are a beautiful high heeled concoction of jewels and velvet (she refers to them as cabaret shoes):



The dress worn throughout is a stark '20s affair: neutral silk sheath, loose as it's too big--yet still managing to emphasize the girl's developing body. It's held together by a loose striped belt that always seems like it's about to slip off:



But the crowning achievement is the men's fedora, obviously too big for her head, with a silk ribbon wrapped around. Paired with her pigtails (held together by more ribbon), this look blows my mind!



indebted to this site for the pics!

Power of Purple

(Ossie Clark, style.com)

(viviencheng)

(Anna Sui, style.com)

There is something about purple that evokes cool luxury and feminity. We think Art Nouveau, peacocks, how lovely it looks with oranges and yellows, tea parlors... The shades in Ossie Clark's resurrected Spring '09 line popped out at us, as did Vivien Cheng's amazing line of revamped vintage purses. And in terms of being all these luxe things, yet 60's and rock and roll, we bow down to Ossie-appreciater Anna Sui's collection for Fall. We love taking old things and making them new again.

Listopad Pop-Up Shop Opening Bash!

We're proud to announce the Grand Opening Party for our new [permanent] Pop-Up Shop within Mercedes Bien Vintage (2423 18th St NW, Second floor, next to Amsterdam Falafel)...

Saturday, September 27th, from 12-4pm. Expect brunch refreshments and awesome tunes from DJ Ris Richards (Q And Not U alum). Come by and say Hi!

Music for Lovers: Norman Greenbaum/Spirit In The Sky

All photos from Norman Greenbaum's website

A guy at my job asked me a couple weeks ago, "Hey, you know that song 'Spirit In The Sky,' right?" I stared at him blankly. Three YouTube seconds later, I realized that yeah, duh, of course I know "Spirit In The Sky." It's right up there with the birthday song and the Tomahawk chop. Who the hell hasn't heard "Spirit In The Sky"? I felt dumb for a minute, but it passed.

Then I did some research on Norman Greenbaum, the song's writer and performer. I chatted with him on the phone-- for work, not for fun-- and he was friendly and eccentric. I asked him to send me some photos of himself c. 1969, the year his song reached #1. And guess what, y'all, Greenbaum was a hottie.

His look was as iconic as the song, and it persists to this day-- from Portland, OR, to Brattleboro, VT, to Richmond, VA. Where Katerina and I went to school in Western Mass (c 2002-2007), this was The Look for men. Women have their own version, too, but there's something so effortlessly sexy about men who pull this off.

I became a little obsessed with Norman Greenbaum, c. 1969. Can you blame me?

When things we can't afford go on sale ...

we still can't afford them.


(TPWP)

Elizabeth and James Slim Keith trouser.

GETTOIT

Gettoit - "Get To It" en Francais.


(Textile Museum)

Tuesday will be the funnest: a challah-making class at Sixth and I. How could this not be awesome!

Wednesday, Women in Film and Video sponsors Best Practices for Green Filmmaking, an awkwardly-titled but important program instructing filmmakers on how to minimize waste in their creative process.

Thursday is the final day of Blue, a gorgeous (and brilliantly conceptualized) exhibit at the much slept-on Textile Museum.

In the mood for a high-low weekend? We always are. The DC Big Flea and the Smithsonian Trunk Show span Saturday and Sunday.

Like the Boys

Once in a while, the real world gives Listopad something it can work with.



Hello, Gap cowlneck pullover! You're looking awfully Rocky-meets-Comme-des-Garcons today.

Vintage Vault: Rayon

A lot of the vintage clothes we run into and sell are handmade...whether in a factory or by someone's loving mom. This is why vintage clothing tends to be of higher quality and why it lasts longer than today's "fast fashion" (and why Forever21 dresses will disintegrate after a couple wears). Anyway, because of superior production methods of the clothing of yore, there is not a lot of standardization in a) sizing, and b) labeling for care. We are here to help. Let's tackle washing your vintage pieces.


Listopad Rayon Colorblock Dress

Ah the conundrum of rayon. The first man-made fiber has a colorful history, including the drama of DuPont losing the original recipe in a fire in the '50s. You've probably picked up cool jersey shirts or draped dresses in a vintage store and thought for sure they were part silk or something else non-synthetic, only to find that it puts up with wear and tear better than silk or maybe there might be a little tag that says "100% Rayon or Viscose." Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you how to care for this fabric of the future. It feels way better than polyester, but does it hold up in the wash as well as poly? Not so much. Rayon does not deal well with water and looses elasticity/shape after washing so dry-cleaning is a must. If you are too cheap for that, though, the only thing I can recommend is spot cleaning with natural soap like Dr. Bronner's--don't soak or wet the entire garment, just dab a bit of detergent and water on the spots and try to soak it up with more dabbing of a sponge.

P.S. Modal is a heartier form of Rayon that can indeed be washed in the machine. It's made out of trees!

Carly Vibin'

This week, Music for Lovers brings you "Why" by Carly Simon. There will be a pop quiz tomorrow, so please be careful to note the following Listopad faves:

- intentional frizz and volume
- questionably intentional bangs
- the best short-dress-and-high-boots combo we've ever seen
- awkwardness, budgetry, and what appears to be attempts at dancing

This song appeared on the soundtrack of the 1982 romantic comedy Soup for One.

Listopad at Mercedes Bien

Guys, it happened! Listopad has a new space at Mercedes Bien on Saturdays (12-6) and Sundays (12-5). The address is 2423 18th St. NW, Second Floor (next to Amsterdam Falafel). We're still planning pop-up events but we're thrilled to have an actual space for you to visit. We think that Mercedes' carefully curated vintage is the best in the city and are thrilled to be able to compliment her with our collection. ALSO, save the date - Saturday, September 27th -we are having a brunch party to kick off the new space and premiere our full collection of hand-picked Fall pieces!

Get a jump-start on Fall! Come and check out our collections of beautiful vintage and modern pieces for gals and guys. We will be open for Adams Morgan day on Sunday.

Home Work

I loved this piece on the Rodarte sisters from NYT Magazine. Their ethereal aesthetic really comes through from the interview, not to mention the great slideshow. Also, the bonds of femininity and sisterhood really inform the business side of their art, a wonderful alternative to the fierce corporate ways of other designers (ahem, Marc Jacobs).

The Post killed it with their style coverage this weekend. Two eloquent pieces by Robin Givhan, about famous bling ("emblematic of hip-hop's often ruthless crusade for success") and first ladies' steez ("so obviously interesting"), along with a healthy serving of Ms. Spinach in the magazine.

Get To It

(Tyler Mallory.)

Y'all, this is going to be a weekend-heavy edition of Get To It because there is like, an orgy of stuff going on. (Get your mind out of the gutter, folks. There is no actual orgy.)

Thursday is the first day of the DC Shorts Film Festival. Our attention span, having been destroyed by too much Internet, is excited. (We recommend LOL titles like The Art of Stalking and Back to the Fuschia.) In addition, Baltimortals Thank You play DC9. (Go to Etete before the show. You will thank me!)

Just try and decide what to do on Saturday. I dare you! You could watch the opening performance of the Washington National Opera's 53rd season broadcast live and for free at Nationals Park, or you could go to the Kennedy Center's Open House Arts Festival, a swirling gyre of amazing performances that marks the hallowed center's 37th birthday. (A performance by Chuck Brown closes the festivites. Do not sleep.) All of this is possible provided you're not too exhausted from going to the opening of Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power at the Corcoran.

Sunday is Adams Morgan Day Festival! Imagine the madness of Adams Morgan on a Friday night. Now multiply that by families, food stands, and craft vendors! Can you stand it?!?! No, seriously, it's pretty fun.

News Flash

(dcist.)

Hooray! Dolcezza's badassery got them a mention in the the New York Times. We feel validated. (Did you know that these gelato swamis have a blog? Kyoot!)

We also have a very last-minute addendum to Get To It: cheeky local label Policy is having a tailgate party at Chix today. You were going to watch football anyway, weren't you? Just throw on some pants and do it in public.

LL Cool D

Listopad loves cool Diane (Kruger).


(Yahoo! Movies.)

I love how Fashion has been riffing on this jacket for the last five years. It should never go away because it is very cute and flatters many a body. DK is working gray-on-gray so gloriously here, and she gets, like, 100 bonus points for her fishtail braid - one of our current obsessions.


(s/a.)

D (or D's stylist - the identity of whom the Internet has yet to reveal) has discovered what the middle-aged, fun-pursuing women of America have known for a minute now: the combination of red and purple is fucking John Blaze. Seriously: is world domination far behind?


(s/a.)

Cute. Just plain cute. Notice the dainty little bow at the collar! But f. you for those legs, woman.


(s/a.)

I like that she likes gray, stripes, dresses, and being ever-so-slightly tousled. These are all things we like.


(Marie Claire.)


Ok, this outfit is kind of whatevs but she has accessorized it quite nicely. Could just be plain old black dress (for which there is a time and a place, I know), but then you look closer and it's like, bam! Cutest little straw hat. Bam! Small-but-sculptural bracelet. Bam! Karl Lagerfeld. Well played.


(Go Fug Yourself.)

Um. Where can I get literally everything that she is wearing?? Go Fug Yourself needs to cool their jets because this outfit is off. the. chain.

Helena Bonham Carter

Friends, Fall 2008 is right around the corner and, according to the runways, looking like a Tim Burton muse is the way to go!

(Thakoon via salon.com...i wonder if Michelle was considering this one...)

To achieve this adorable hairstyle, you need a good, full head of shiny hair. We gave the new Kiehl's Ultimate Thickening Shampoo a go and were very pleased with the results. Kiehl's is one of the few beauty lines I regularly splurge on, the French Rosewater is like a treat for my face.

This botanical-infused shampoo made my hair thicker, shinier, and gave my waves a bouncy bounce. Every Thursday through the 25th, you can make an appointment for a consultation where a Kiehl's expert will provide you with a recipe for the perfect hairstyle, featuring this product and others in their "Stylist Series."