Word Association

I was going to make a post about Chanukah today, but then I found this picture in New York of Cher at Studio 54 and got really distracted. Her outfit is slightly confusing but it appears to be the tightest jeans ever and an open button down which reveals piles of slinky bling. Don't even get me started on the suspenders! Her cascading waves of hair! Her hat! Do you like how she's all, "Oh, we're going to the most famous club ever? Let me just put on my jeans and my insane gold necklace."


I check our site-counter obsessively (hello, German readers! Thank you for searching Christine McVie and finding us here), and in the last week or so, an inordinate number of people have arrived at Listopad via Google searches for Bobby Trendy, the late Anna Nicole Smith's interior decorator. This prompted me to re-read Simon Doonan's 2002 New York Observer column in which Trendy asks if Diana Vreeland is "a new type of strep throat," which in turn prompted me to look up photos of Diana Vreeland. I found this one at Wessel + O'Connor Fine Art; it was taken by Andy Warhol. This is how I want to be remembered - as a pair of penetrating eyes punctuated by knotty, gesticulating hands, painted nails, and big jewelry.


"We're stormy, and that which is ours breaks loose from us without our fearing any debilitation," wrote Helene Cixous in "The Laugh of the Medusa," which was published in L'Arc in 1968. "Our glances, our smiles are spent; laughs exude from all our mouths; our blood flows and we extend ourselves without ever reaching an end; we never hold back our thoughts, our signs, our writing; and we're not afraid of lacking." Olivier Roller took this photo of her in 2004. I can't wait to be old and have crazy short hair and do whatever the fuck I want with my makeup.

Edgeward Scissorhands

Sometimes I become very irrational and want short hair.












I blame the recession. It encourages austerity and frowns on frippery. The flow-y locks of the bubble years now seem frivolous and impractical; I'm really inclinded to take a hacksaw to my shoulder-length mane and sport a look that's more - I don't know, severe? Industrial? Avant-garde, maybe? Short hair always seems like the hair of the future, even when it's the hair of the past.



Although the past makes a convincing case for long hair, too.



(photos via Gatochy.)

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!)

Fandes

Hi guys. I started school on Monday!


(American Rhetoric.)

I am taking this really awesome class: the Anthropology of Food. Today, we discussed Andean farming traditions: how they've been in practice for thousands of years with no detriment to the soil or slackening in crop yields. These dudes have literally found the perfect way to farm!


(Ilhuicamina.)

They have also found the perfect way to dress!


(quintet.)


(Walking the Amazon.)

Note: sweet headgear, 50-inspired circle skirts, jewel tones, long braids, and baby-as-accessory. Listopad approves!

Constanzas make me nervous.

You guys remember Bobby Trendy, right?


(Evil Beet Gossip)

He was Anna Nicole Smith's interior decorator.

"I tell other people what is wrong with them—I teach lessons every day." Mr. Trendy bragged of dining nightly on filet mignon; does he fear mad-cow disease? "I repel all diseases."

This quote is from a 2002 NY Observer column penned by the fucking hysterical Simon Doonan after an extensive interview with Trendy (I am trying to be journalistic by using his last name, but ... yeah), in which the decorator drank champagne and "implored the cameraman to 'photograph my beautiful butthole.'"

Please read it!

Merrily we roll along

Dolce and Gabbana is a party animal.


(justOne!.)


(Apron and Irons.)

(Fashion had this weird collective Marie Anoinette moment maybe 3 years ago? I have to confess, I really loved it.)

But look at how crowded these ads are!


(Advertalog.)


(s/a)


(Kitmeout.)


(Christonium.)

This I fucking love. Look at those floating psycho magpie women!

Costanzas make me nervous.

I love Hiroshi Tanabe.


(Pic from Bibabidi.)

Deeper Luxury

How does your It bag brand rank? A great report from WWF UK about luxury brand rankings in regards to social responsibility and sustainability.

Pay it Foward

Taking part in this because I couldn't resist Renee's offer:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Self Explanatory

Buy Less Crap: my sentiments exactly on the (Red) campaign/capitalist "charity". I believe they have yet to make enough money to actually donate anything--thanks Bono.

That's Knit!

(from top: inspirations from Giles, Giles, Collette Dinnigan, Sophia Kokosalaki, Louis Vouitton, Stella McCartney)

I love D.C. for many reasons, one of the most important being the change in seasons. Fall and Winter are my faves; I cannot help but love the comfort and layering of cool weather wardrobes. So, I was grateful for the ubiquitous knitwear on Fall 2007 runways. The quirky elegance and warmth of the extra-long handknit scarves and accessories made me want to start knitting right away.

If you are a beginner, chunky knits are easy and fast and brilliantly more rewarding than paying hundreds of dollars for a designer version. For supplies in the area, I love Aylin's Woolgatherer in Loehman's Plaza in Falls Church, they have a great sale section. At the Green Festival this past weekend, I made some purchases at Kusikuy, a swell fair trade company who works with native co-ops in the Andean region. They have lovely, handknit alpaca miniskirts and sweaters and also a variety of cozy Eco-Tinte Cotton yarn. Now, you can create your own Ready to Wear accessories to wrap around and around and around...

PunkHouse

Thurston Moore's new book is a collection of visuals and philosophy surrounding communal living, but specifically the concept of a punk house. Now, as with many musical genres, punk offers a mythical fairyland full of youthful rebellion, dreamy mohawks and teenage angst--so of course it is very appealing to think about it as liberatory and progressive. Regardless of how you feel about punk rock and its politics, I think we can all agree on this point: punk houses suck. Seriously. Have you ever stayed in one? Have you ever wrapped yourself up in your patch-covered clothing, putting your hood up so no single inch of your skin touches anything inside the punk house? Have you ever been served dumpstered bagels for a week straight, every meal, from a trashbag sitting in the [dirty] kitchen sink in said punk house? Let's not even think about the fact that there is hardly ever a working toilet in the place. Well it sucks. Even in Ungdomshuset, the reliable and legendary Copenhagen punk house/commune (they had a bar with organic beer, expensive video projectors, industrial kitchens), the bathrooms were scary. I've lived in co-ops, group houses, managed an anarchist bookstore/show venue/punk home and it can be
unbearable!*



I haven't read Thurston's book, but I did used to live next door to him. I went into his house once, because I booked a performance for a friend of his and she stayed with him....let me tell you his house is no punk house in the traditional sense of the word. It's actually gorgeous.

Anyway, I look foward to seeing the photos in this book (which I am sure will serve as evidence of my above assertions) because of pure nostalgia on my part for the punk life, but I am also curious to read what he has to say about communal living in this day and age. Is it due to resurge as we grow tired of suburbia, obssesive privacy and urban loneliness? I hope it does, but in a slightly cleaner way than the punk house.

p.s. Catch the man himself at Rock N Roll Hotel on Sept. 29

*I know there can be exceptions and there are many a well-run punk house around the world, but let me generalize for a bit ;)

More on luxury

Love this commentary from Jezebel re: Dana Thomas' work.

The Luxury of disagreement

So I went to Dana Thomas' book signing yesterday at Politics and Prose for her book Deluxe, even though I haven't read the book. Hey, I was hoping for some good discussion! Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. While I appreciate Thomas trying to expose the secrets of the luxury industry and re-examine the economic implications of everyone wanting a LV bag, she rallies for reforming luxury instead of reforming consumerism. She calls out counterfitters for using child labor/sweatshops, funding terrorism and hurting designer sales (yeah right), she scolds luxury goods makers for buying each other out and she shit talks hedge fund investors for ruining designers left and right.

Yet, she didn't mention in her rants (maybe it's in her book) about luxury goods that are produced in sweatshops. She doesn't mention how supporting huge conglomerate "luxury" brands that steal ideas from smaller designers destroys creativity and artistry. While she praised the craftsmanship of the Louis Vuitton custom workshop, she failed to hail the craftsmanship of small, independent companies or producers. What I am getting at is that she provided no alternatives...she didn't tell you how to fight the man. I guess that's not her role, but I was looking for a call to micro-patronage and a move away from corporate hegemony. Instead of asking Gucci to become a better corporation, why can't we encourage the growth of local artisans, craftsman, designers in our own communities. I'm talking about buying small, buying locally and buying less. But buying less is pointedly not luxurious, so how would a Newsweek reporter sporting Louboutins (whose authentic soles she insisted on flashing to the audience) know about that?

Express

Heya, my flip flop rant got picked by Express' Blog Log. But misprinted. I stand by my rant though!

Question

Why do people wear flip flops in the rain? It's like a death wish. Everything is slippery, your feet get all wet, muddy and gross, and usually the flip flops just fly off your feet.

Totally Lame

Lifted from the internet: TopShop sucks. I haven't been buying from mass retailers like TopShop, H&M, Forever21 and the like for some years now...and this news item is exactly the reason why. There is no way to assure sweatshop-free labor when a product is manufactured in a developing country, short of visiting the factory yourself. Sure, many companies have warm and fuzzy declarations on their websites promising social responsibility but really, how can a multi-national corporation concerned with making BILLIONS of dollars in profit really concern itself with the payment and treatment of employees in factories far, far away from corporate HQ?

For me, the only way to ensure that my dress/shoes/t-shirt were made without slave labor is for the item to have a tag on it that says "Made in the USA" or in a European country, specifically a member of the EU. Even better for it to say "Fair Trade." Otherwise, I always assume that sweatshop labor was used for the product, regardless of the factory inspection assurances of the companies. Another great reason to buy vintage/used clothing: no blood on your hands.

More info: Sweatshop Watch; Co-op America

Hillary or Bust

Sometimes the most fashion-y attention DC can garner is this. The girls at Jezebel are wondering why Robin Givhan, who won a Pulitzer for her fashion musings, even cares about Hillary's boobs (the article came out a bit ago). Seriously, worrying about boobs on the president is like talking about female presidents' getting PMS and ruining the country. Also, if a woman ever becomes president, I'm sure it will be during her post-menopausal years.