I’ve seen a ton of young celebs such as Nicole Richie, Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan wearing an armful of haute hippie bracelets. Wood beads, braided strings and gold bangles all piled together to look perfectly grungy on their bird-bone wrists. As soon as the weather got warm, I was inspired to start stacking similar styles on my own arm for a look that is super summery and offsets even the most polished dress to feel effortless and a little less perfect.
Check out several styles that look great stacked together or mixed up with various textures and colors here.
-- Melissa Magsaysay
Photo: Gratitude bracelets from Marnie Rocks. Photo credit: Marnie Rocks
Mesh & Lace Shoe Salon: "Girlie couture" boutique opens its in-store shoe salon featuring footwear ranging from $65 to $135. Summer styles in stock are from brands All Black, Luichiny, Matiko and Pink Studio.
3208 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 667-1732. Noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. www.meshandlacela.com
Shoe Bliss: New footwear boutique carries designer heels at discounted prices. Among the offerings are $35 Isaac Mizrahis, $99 Report Signature Collection booties and $287 Roger Viviers strappy sandals. Summer fashions are also available, including $69 Jenny Han styles and $125 Golden Bleu handbags plus a selection of Hale Bob dresses and Kasil denim. As a special grand-opening promotion, both in-store and online, you can buy three pairs of shoes, get one free (while supplies last).
819 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 358-9454. 1 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. www.shoebliss.com.
Ottica: New Sunset Plaza boutique stocks luxury eyewear from Tom Ford, Chanel, Cartier and Prada at prices ranging from $150 to $2,000. Owner and board-certified optician Garen Ogani also designs a signature eyewear collection, embellished with gold details and precious stones, priced from $600 to $16,000.
8624 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. (310) 652-2121. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Saturday. www.otticainc.com.
Gossip, first impressions, trends in the making, celebrities and style setters. A regular feature by fashion critic Booth Moore.
I couldn't wait to see "Bruno" after the hubbub Sacha Baron Cohen created at fashion week last September trying to sneak into runway shows. And though the film, which opens July 10, wasn't the all-out "Zoolander" or "The Devil Wears Prada" sort of fashion industry spoof I was expecting, it was a lot of fun -- with a definite dark side.
With his frosted highlights, hairless bod and orange tan, Bruno (Baron Cohen), an Austrian fashion TV reporter, is a caricature of a designer-obsessed gay man. (Now I know where all of those men's runway looks have been going: The peekaboo plastic trench, the skin-tight T-shirts and short-shorts, the Dolce & Gabbana fatigues -- they are all here, courtesy of costume designer Jason Alper.)
The stereotype might be offensive to some, except that the film's prevailing message is about tolerance. Plus, Baron Cohen is equal opportunity. He lampoons homophobes in Arkansas, fundamentalists in Alabama, members of Mossad in the Middle East, stage moms in Sherman Oaks and celebrities, including Paula Abdul, in Hollywood.
Agent Provocateur Thursday through Aug. 2: The U.K. lingerie brand, known for its saucy styles, throws its annual summer sale in time for seasonal weddings. Popular looks on sale include a $150 "nude" stretch wet-look bodysuit (regular price $290) and bra and brief sets, including pink tulle ($110 bra, $80 thong), Swiss embroidery ($70 bra, $40 brief, $50 garter belt) plus red and gray leopard-print silk ($130 bustier, $70 brief).
7961 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 653-0229. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Bloomingdale's at South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. (714) 824-4731. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
PARIS -- As an unrepentant recidivist optimist, I appreciated Paul Smith's Spring/Summer 2010 collection, not only for the clothes, but also because, as the last major show on the men's Paris Fashion Week calendar, it took us out on a high note, managing to hit on several of the major themes from both cities -- the varied hues of blue, the sheer, gauzy fabrics, the wrinkled, crumpled look, the emphasis on prints, the subtle references to weather -- and making us tap our toes and crack a smile and remember that it's always sunny above the clouds.
That last line may sound trite, but the invitations to Smith's show, as well as the backdrop at his show, featured an image of puffy white cloud cover and blue sky -- the kind you see when you're on a plane at 30,000 feet winging your way to a tropical vacation, about 13 seconds after you begin sipping your first mai tai. It may be raining underneath those clouds, but up here? It's all good.
Although travel and tropical climes are a traditional subtext for the men's spring-summer collections, Smith brought it to the fore with his narrow-collared, tailored take on the aloha shirt -- some with travel-postcard prints, others with botanical prints of pineapples (and, oddly enough, mushrooms).
The pineapple motif, a traditional symbol of hospitality (not to mention a traditional anniversary gift to my better half, Mrs. Rage) also appeared as embroidery, both on a silk varsity jacket and more subtly as tone-on-tone embellishment on the lapels of a shawl-collar tuxedo.
There was much more in Smith's fruit basket -- a cornucopia of color that included electric blues, nearly blinding reds, powerful purples (this is where the leprechaun says, "It's magically delicious!") as if each of the color slices in Smith's signature stripe had suddenly gotten its own day in the sun.
PARIS -- Galliano's inspirations for the Spring/Summer 2010 men's collection included Napoleon Bonaparte's ill-fated military campaign in Egypt and Syria and Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia."
The result, when you strip away the runway trappings -- head wraps, Galliano-as-Napoleon leopard print T-shirts and the requisite model with his hand stuffed solemnly into his jacket -- was a wind-whipped, sand-blasted, sun-bleached, bone-weary regiment of tailored pieces in whites and beiges layered in with embroidered denim and floral patterns (some over-printed on his signature newspaper print) inspired by Oriental vase prints.
Interestingly, Galliano's was the second collection this season to directly reference the theme of desert warfare (the first was Versace's love note to the foreign legion), and one of several that touched on the idea of nomadic tribes battling the elements by sending faded, wrinkled, crumpled and weathered-looking garments down the runway.
Since Galliano counts Napoleon among his heroes (who couldn't have guessed that?) and this collection was so well received, it might be natural to consider another of Bonaparte's famous military campaigns for a future season.
We suggest a Russian campaign -- though not for Fall/Winter. We all know what happened last time Bonaparte tried that.
-- Adam Tschorn
Photos from the John Galliano Spring / Summer 2010 men's runway collection, June 26, 2009, in Paris. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson.
PARIS -- Rick Owens' sophomore outing at men's fashion week here Friday found the designer easing up a bit from his Fall/Winter show (truthfully there wasn't much room to move in the other direction -- if the collection got any darker and heavier, it would risk collapsing in on itself and create a black hole). There were gauzy, white long-sleeve T-shirts, faded, repurposed denim used to create geometric shapes, and black nylon shirts.
Pieces seemed to have fluidity: A zip-front leather vest paired with a soft-draping fabric hood; a messenger bag strap slung across the chest anchored a cloud of black fabric that resembled something between garbage bag and carbon paper. Zippers curved gracefully; a square white "tail" of fabric fluttered from the rear waistband of pants.
And then there was the footwear, the most memorable of which were eye-catching black-and-white high-top sneakers with leather pieces from shin to toe that make the feet look like suction cups.
Back stage after the show, Owens explained his inspiration. "I call it my all-American collection," he said. 'It's sort of an apology for being such a [jerk]."
"I was quoted in an interview saying American tourists were ruining the Paris landscape with their fanny packs and their man bags, so this collection has leather jackets that have arms that zip off and the jacket becomes a bag."
After slowly sliding my own man bag out of Owen's sight, I asked if there was anything he did differently for this collection.
"Yeah," said the dark prince of Paris Fashion Week. "I used taffeta this time, and I liked the way it turned out."
-- Adam Tschorn
Photos: Looks from Rick Owens' men's Spring/Summer 2010 runway show in Paris on June 26, 2009. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson.
On Sunday, Alice + Olivia kicks off summer by hosting a surfside family
picnic at the Malibu Lumber Yard, and neighbors Tory Burch and Intermix
are chipping in on the festivities offering kid face-painting, balloon
art and jewelry making.
To get the party started, Alice + Olivia will be handing out complimentary
lunch boxes decorated by designer Stacey Bendet and packed with
healthful sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit and a beverage. Kids can
design their own lunch pail, complete with shovel and sunglasses, then
snack on Yogen Früz frozen yogurt or decorate a Crumbs cupcake.
Of course, shopping is encouraged, with 10% of proceeds from Alice +
Olivia and other participating stores benefiting the EB Medical
Research Foundation (www.ebkids.org), which funds research and treatment for the debilitating skin disease epidermolysis bullosa.
Shoppers will find Alice + Olivia beach-ready gear, including $154
shorts, $297 jumpsuits, $198 embellished T-shirts and a $330
puff-sleeved "poet" dress that can double as an aprés-beach cover-up.
Little girls can try on a $330 froufrou party dress named after
Bendet's daughter Eloise. Picnickers can pick up a $505 cashmere
blanket for a fancy throw down.
Bendet says that after she saw "kids running around the courtyard"
during the opening of the Malibu Lumber Yard, she surmised the open-air
mall would make a great place for a picnic. "Picnics remind me of
family time, and I want to share that," she says.
Parisians within earshot of a BlackBerry or a cellphone began to hear the first tremulous rumors of Michael Jackson's passing at about 10:30 local time Thursday night, and by midnight the news had started to spread in earnest: The King of Pop was dead.
On Friday morning, the news was splashed across the front pages: “Michael Jackson: la mort d’une icone planetaire” (Michael Jackson: the death of a planetary icon) proclaimed Le Monde. The front page of Le Figaro simply read: “La Mort de Michael Jackson” (The Death of Michael Jackson). A newspaper vendor near the Odeon Metro station said he had sold many more of both papers than usual, and his supply of Le Figaro was sold out.
Radio stations were playing wall-to-wall Michael Jackson music. The announcer on France Inter peppered her discussion with English terms (“Peter Pan” was just one). Friday didn’t appear to bring any mass outpouring of grief among residents or the assorted members of the media and buyers from around the world attending the men’s spring/summer 2010 runway collections, some found ways to continue with the task at hand while paying homage to the Gloved One.
The first noticeable homage to Jackson came at the Commes des Garcons Homme Plus show. As one of the models reached the end of the runway, he pushed back his left jacket sleeve to reveal the words “R.I.P. SMOOTH CRIMINAL” for the cameras, a reference to the title of one of Jackson’s most popular tunes. At Givenchy's later that evening, among the pieces Riccardo Tisci sent down the runway was a sleeveless, gold metallic shirt embellished with large military-style stars, reportedly created by the designer as one of Jackson’s costumes for the planned upcoming series of concerts.
But the most touching moment came at the end of Friday’s Galliano’s show -- an homage to Napoleon Bonaparte that took place in am abandoned, graffiti-covered swimming pool and former homeless flop house on the edge of Paris. As the models did their final walk, the soundtrack eased into a pastiche of Michael Jackson clips before blaring “PYT" (Pretty Young Thing) and the crowd took to their feet, clapped their hands and roared in approval.
“The king is dead,” they seemed to be saying. “Long live the king.”
