Babycat!

It’s been quite a week.

On Tuesday night, I heard a faint mewing outside our living room window. Kenn and I grabbed a flashlight, ran outside in our pajamas and searched the bushes, finally seeing this little fellow cowering and crying. Unfortunately, he bolted and ran into a tiny crawlspace.

Wednesday morning, we were awoken at about 6am by more crying. We found him on the back stairs this time, again alone and crying. Kenn captured him after much fuss.

The little guy was dirty, smelly, and starving. We went out and got him a bottle, some formula, kitten food, and a flea comb. I bathed him and spent about an hour picking off and killing fleas, which he was absolutely covered in (can you tell I’ve done this before?). We gave him a heating pad to lie on, and quite quickly he was playing, purring, and cuddling with us. He wolfed down a lot of food and slept peacefully on his heating pad nearly all day.

Luckily, I was able to find him a new home the same day, because Basil and Colette were very disturbed by this development. He started cuddling and purring with his new mom immediately upon meeting her, and she informs me he’s doing well in his transition from street urchin to pampered house cat!

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The mysterious button store

For a while now, I’ve been hearing about some super secret button store which is stocked with all manner of vintage buttons. I never understood why it was a secret, because I’m sure such a tiny little business could use the support and customers!

Anyway, I finally found it. Exclusive Buttons in El Cerrito is a teeny tiny little shop run by an incredibly helpful older lady, and stocked to the brim with vintage buttons still on their cards, along with buckles, closures, etc. The owner told me that they stock no plastic. I’m still confused about that because a lot of them seemed like plastic, and some things were clearly marked “bakelite,” which was the first manufactured synthetic plastic.

I bought several cards of beautiful buttons, but seriously had to restrain myself. Beautiful buttons can transform the plainest piece of clothing, but it’s really hard to find full sets of nice vintage ones.

But I think my favorite purchase was the vintage belt buckle kits for making fabric-covered belts! Remember when I was just recently pining for such a thing when I posted about this beautiful yellow Lorick dress?

And just look at those red and white flowery things. They look like christmas cookies. And the ones below are my favorite.

I always thought Tender Buttons in NYC’s garment district was the be all and end all in buttons. And it still wins for selection. But Exclusive Buttons is so much more charming, magical, old fashioned, and helpful.

Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton

Last night, we had some friends and their kids over for dinner, and afterward settled in to watch this documentary: Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. Originally created for French television, the movie provides a glimpse of Marc Jacobs, probably the most influential and interesting contemporary American designer, as he balances his own line with heading the esteemed Vuitton house.

The narration for this movie is a little bit strange, with some probable translation issues and an extremely fast pace. There were a lot of “WTF?” moments. Like, why did they play bagpipe music every time they showed footage from Tokyo? At times, it also seemed to be a bit of a publicity video, with lots of video of MJ being very quirky and lovable, and interviews with people like Anna Wintour and Sofia Coppola talking about how amazing he is.

That said, there is quite a bit of insight into the design and production process. We get to watch a roomful of people designing and presenting inspiration boards and collages at Vuitton; we see how an old acrylic purple sweater from the 70s “inspires” a new cashmere version; and we see the workshops operating at an incredibly frenzied pace to get the collection ready. Seriously, it was more like Project Runway than I imagined, with seamstresses going without sleep and literally running across town with dresses as the runway show begins.

There were also some glimpses at Marc Jacob’s creative philosophy, which I found really interesting. He’s immersed himself in the world of art, becoming a competitive collector, and admits to having an inferiority complex about not being a “true” artist. He doesn’t own a car or even his apartment; apparently, his only real possessions are the art he’s collected. His love for art certainly influences his work, from collaborations with artists like Takashi Murakami to the conceptual nature of some of his design.

While this documentary was a bit more shallow than the Yves Saint Laurent movie, I think you see a really different side of the fashion world here, one that’s more commerce focused, yet prefers to align itself more with high art. It left me with a few questions about where that line is.

Her lips were like cherries and she was stronger than any man

I’m a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to red lipstick. I’ve been wearing red lips since I was a teenager dyeing my hair black and listening to siouxsie. It seemed every rockabilly, punk, or goth girl I knew was on an endless quest for The Perfect Red.

Though red lipstick has become more of an occasional thing these days, mostly out of laziness, it holds a special place in my heart. Few things are as simple and transforming.

So let me share with you my favorites to date.

The queen of them all, in my opinion, is MAC Russian Red. This is a simple, true, matte red. Also, it smells like vanilla or something.

But after that, I would have to go with some of the lipsticks from Besame, a retro makeup company run from Los Angeles by a gorgeous lady called Gabriela Hernandez. The packaging is high-quality, old-fashioned, and gorgeous gold-toned metal. The quality is amazing and the colors are beautiful. This goes for everything, not just the lipstick.

My favorites are Red Velvet (a deep, neutral red), Cherry Red (a very cool toned pinkish red), and Noir Red (a really dark silent film star type color).

The reason I mention this now is because Besame is clearing out their current line to make way for new products and everything on the site is extremely cheap. Lipsticks are $6, about a third of what they usually cost. I am struggling with this because I really do not need more lipstick. sigh.

(By the way, the red I’m wearing in the above photo is gorgeous, but I have no clue what it is. My friend Mari gave it to me, and it’s in an unmarked pale mint green tube.)

Up and away

We had a wonderful time in Sonoma last weekend. Hot air balloons are neat.

…and I love horses.

Afterward, we had breakfast in this beautiful garden. It was basically a scaled up version of my dream garden. There were separate mini gardens within it for various cuisines: Italian, south american, etc.

We also visited a very nice winery and had dinner at an adorable little restaurant in a converted old pullman train car. It was a pretty fancy birthday.

{more photos on flickr, if you’re interested}

Birthday Magic

This is my beautiful new dress, which Kenn bought me for my birthday. He is really good at buying me clothes. It’s been a year since I bought any new, non-handmade clothing, so dresses as gifts are a special treat. Polka dots and plaid are two of my favorite things. And bows. Also, pockets.

Other birthday gifts included a new lens and lots of great books. And this weekend, we are escaping to Sonoma to relax, drink wine, and ride in a hot air ballloon (!!)

I know this blog has slowed down lately, but only because I have been extremely busy working on stuff in my studio, scheming and dreaming. But I don’t want to talk in too much detail about my plans until I have something to show for it.

(cue the Beastie Boys’ “She’s Crafty”)

Have a lovely, warm & sunny weekend everyone!

Fifi wears Luella SS08

I have been waiting patiently for Fifi Lapin to start selling prints of her fabulous bunnyness again, and finally they returned to her etsy store.

Today, I received this print of Fifi wearing Luella’s spring/summer 08 collection, inspired by Enid in Ghostworld.

I love Enid, I love Luella, I love catwoman, and I love bunnies.

Yves Saint Laurent - His Life and Times

We just finished watching Yves Saint Laurent - His Life and Times/5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris, a two-part documentary on the famous couturier who only recently passed away. The first part focuses on his life, from his childhood in Algeria to his quick rise as the head of Dior through the development of his own enduring style. The second part shows the inner workings of his studio as he and his staff put together the SS 2001 couture collection.

This second part was somehow both fascinating and deadly boring at once. It’s a real look inside, not edited to make it seem especially exciting, so it really feels like you’re following people around through their day at work. But as a seamstress, it was incredibly enlightening to see how it all works, from dream to sketch to toile to final creation. The perfectionism and attention to detail is apparent throughout the process.

One thing that really struck me was that, unlike most teams of people working on a creative project, there was clearly only one person in the room designing. Yves Saint Laurent created all the sketches, and his staff was responsible for the implementation. They seemed to defer to him completely, offering only the gentlest feedback and constantly fretting about pleasing him. He was the man with the vision. It really makes you understand why so many successful designers have a diva temperament. Without one person’s unwavering vision, there is little chance for this many people to develop a coherent collection.

At the same time, Yves Saint Laurent was a gentle, softspoken person, and his relationship with his staff was incredibly respectful and kind. He truly appreciated their work and skill, and they appreciated his incredible talent and vision. There was a lovely scene in which he thanks the head seamstress for a piece, and she embraces him, kisses his cheek and says, “Thank you for creating these beautiful designs.”

Fresh as a daisy

I saw this dress while browsing the blog at Frances May, a shop in Portland, OR that specializes in independent designers. Portland has such amazing dress shops.

Anyway, this dress is by Lorick and it’s so lovely. I’m really into sheers lately. The dress I’m working on now is sheer and floaty and pink. But I think what really makes this one is the matching belt.

When I first started sewing, way back in high school, you could buy kits to make covered belts to match your dress at Joann or whatever. So many vintage dresses were made with matching belts, but not so much anymore. Maybe they are considered old fashioned, because they aren’t so easy to come by now. They’re still around, just not widely available.

On an unrelated note, we’re currently playing through all the music we own. We did this once before by putting our iTunes library on random for an entire month, and it was good for breaking the music rut. Now we’re playing whole albums, in alphabetical order, which is a lot less jarring. We started with Abattoir Blues. I am looking forward to hearing Bad Music For Bad People soon, as I think the Cramps are the best best best music to listen to on a hot day. Right now we’re listening to Morphine, which is also pretty sexy and sultry hot weather music.

Kenn is making mango-coconut smoothies for breakfast. It smells wonderful. That is all. I love summer.

Art and Style: Pepperminte

Hi all. Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. I have been busy busy, sewing up a storm, working on business plans, and playing with my new serger.

In the meantime, I wanted to share the work of this Australian artist/illustrator, Caitlin marie Shearer, aka pepperminte. I just bought a handful of her incredibly inexpensive prints. I really like the Jugendstil-esque style of them, like Egon Schiele paper dolls.