Anaheim Ducks right wing George Parros is a lamb-barbecuing, punch-throwing, occasionally Times-blogging, professional-hockey-playing Princeton grad. And for a few months every year, the long-locked, massively mustachioed enforcer endures looking like a Yanni impersonator so he can donate his hair to a group that will use it to make wigs for children battling cancer.
This year’s George Parros Cut for the Kids is slated for Dec. 14, but before that, he's weaving a new strand into his particular brand of follicular fundraising: the launch of ‘Stache Gear, his very own apparel line, which goes on sale on Black Friday, exclusively at the Anaheim Ducks Team Store.
I caught up with Parros by phone before practice recently to discuss his charitable activities, his foray into fashion and to trace the history of the signature upper lip adornment he believes to be “the physical embodiment of all that is manly.”
How long have you had the mustache? I’ve had one on and off for a long time, but this is probably my fourth straight year. I’ve had it since before I was with the [Anaheim] Ducks. What first prompted you to grow one in the first place? Did your dad sport a ’stache? He had one when I was born, I think. And when my sister was born. But he didn’t while we were growing up. But I was always a big hockey fan, and I remember being fascinated with the mustaches. It’s a rich
So far in the marathon of mustache musings, I've forgotten to point out that "Movember" has become a great way of sponsoring brands to reach the tonsorial tribe and support a charitable cause at the same time. As you prepare for your postprandial foray into the retail wilderness, you might want to be aware of the following for the mustache maven or friend of facial hair in your family:
The Urban Demistache: This thick, handsome handlebar looks like it was plucked fresh from a carnival barker. Basic versions of the 2-inch-long mustache are plated pewter available in rose gold, brass gold, gunmetal black or silver for $38, or you can kick it up a notch with topaz, crystals, amethysts or pave crystals for a bit more (up to $98). Order one here through Jan. 1 and the company will donate $8 from the sale to Movember. ($38 to $98).
Dermalogica Shave products: Through the end of Movember, the folks at Dermalogica have pledged a dollar from the sale of each shaving product to the Movember Foundation, which will split the funds between organizations battling prostate cancer and testicular cancer.
Arbitrage mustache cuff links: If you prefer to wear your support on your sleeve instead of your upper lip, check out the 'stache cufflinks. In gold, rose gold, gunmetal and silver ($65). For each pair sold, $20 goes to the Movember efforts.
Giles & Brother by Philip Crangi tiny mustache earrings: The sterling silver ($65) or 14-karat gold vermeil ($78) earrings I mentioned back in October don't benefit the Movember Foundation, but they're worth a mention if you're making a list and checking it twice.
OK, so these two mustache-themed items from Urban Outfitters aren't kicking any money toward charity either, but they could be the perfect stocking stuffers for the handlebar-hosting hipster in your office pool.
Mustache ornament: O tonsorial Tannenbaum! Give your Christmas tree the gift of facial hair with a faux leather handlebar mustache ornament ($8).
Mustache bandages: Cut yourself shaving that upper lip? Cover the carving with the appropriate bandage -- one bearing a mustache graphic design. ($7).
-- Adam Tschorn
Photos, from top: Urban Demistache necklaces ($38). Credit: Demitasse Jewelry. Arbitrage cuff links ($65, shown in gunmetal). Credit: Arbitrage Clothing
The Movember mustaches are now barely 3 weeks old, so we thought it was high time to provide some visual updates -- and encourage others to send in photographic evidence of their hirsute pursuits so we can all have a good chuckle over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Mine has finally emerged from its lip smudge dormancy and become something I find myself referring to in the third person (things like: "Adam's mustache wants to go to Palm Springs," or "Adam's mustache wants to buy the band a drink.")
At this point, the men behind the 3-week-old badges of follicular courage will find themselves having to make some serious decisions about what kind of mustache they want to cultivate. I've chosen a conservative, somewhat corporate Eric Holderesque bat-wing 'stache because it seems so against type. It's actually turned out creepier than I imagined.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that a few week back, the guys over at KTLA had a good-natured response to my earlier call to Southland celebs to let it grow, which I've embedded at the bottom of this post. (But I still expect real ones next year, guys!)
So submit photographic evidence of your facial forestry to our Your Scene site, or Tweet them to our attention @LATimesImage and we'll put together a gallery.
Photos (from top): The 3-week-old mustache belonging to Times staff writer Adam Tschorn is now prominent enough to refer to in the third person. (Example: "Adam's mustache was NOT happy with this photograph.") Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
Every time I see those features in the magazines where people write in to find out where to get the dress/lipstick/handbag that appears on a celebrity, I'm suspicious that they're all just made up inquiries.
So I was surprised to receive an e-mail recently asking the Rage crew for a little bit of fashion forensics. It read in part:
"Hoping you might be able to help me. In last week's episode of "Curb" (Episode 8 of Season 7, "Officer Krupke"), Cheryl is wearing an animal-print blouse that my mother is OBSESSED with. Would love to know where to get it for her for Christmas ... Do you guys know how I can find out who makes it?"
It took a little bit of digging -- since the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" cast members have been known to mine their own wardrobe for the clothes they wear on-screen -- but I'm happy to report that the blouse in question is by Nanette Lepore.
What I'm not happy to report is that the blouse in question is from the designer's Resort 2009 collection and the folks at Nanette Lepore tell me it's no longer available in stores.
But at least now our Christmas elf (whose name I won't divulge in case the hunt turns out to be successful) now has some search terms to help as she scours the far corners of the Internet.
And, if you've seen something on screen and want to know more about it, feel free to post a comment on the blog or shoot me an e-mail (at adam.tschorn@latimes.com) and I'll try to get the back story.
-- Adam Tschorn
Photo: Cheryl Hines (left) and Elisabeth Shue. Hines, as Cheryl* David, is wearing an animal print blouse from designer Nanette Lepore's 2009 Resort collection. Credit: Doug Hyun.
*[Updated 11/23/2009 11:05 AM: In an earlier version of this post, the "Curb" character played by Cheryl Hines was incorrectly referred to as Laurie David.]
To me, what Monday's announcement from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (suggesting that women under the age of 50 don't need regular mammograms) seemed to lack was personal perspective. Anyone who has suffered through breast cancer -- or had a loved one who has -- will probably tell you that performing 1,900 preventive mammograms to save the life of one woman isn't too big a hurdle.
If you feel otherwise, save your vitriol for someone else. I'm not a scientist, an economist or a government flack. What I am, however, is someone who appreciates how quickly the wheels of commerce (even charitable commerce) can turn in the Internet age.
About 15 minutes ago, my sister-in-law sent me a link to cafepress.com/1in1900, where T-shirts are already for sale that hammer home what those odds really mean. White T-shirts emblazoned with the pink ribbon that's become the symbol of the battle against breast cancer, the shirts bear the words: "I Am the One in 1900 " at the top and the words "My life was saved by preventative breast cancer screening."
Other versions personalize the odds with "My Friend Is the 1 in 1900," "My Mother Is the 1 in 1900," "My Sister Is the 1 in 1900," "My Daughter Is the 1 in 1900" and "My Wife Is the 1 in 1900."
All proceeds from the $19.99* T-shirts benefit the American Cancer Society, which quite publicly continues to recommend annual screening using mammography and clinical breast examination for all women beginning at age 40.
What do you think the odds are they'll sell a heck of a lot better than the "I Followed the New Screening Guidelines and All I Got Was This Lousy Breast Cancer" shirts?
-- Adam Tschorn
*[UPDATED 11/19/2009: In an early version of this post, the price of the T-shirts was incorrectly listed as $14.99.]
Womenswear designer Sophie Théallet was named the winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in New York City last night, with jewelry designer Monique Péan and menswear designer Patrik Ervell named as runners-up.
The sixth recipient of the top honor, Théallet will receive $200,000, with Pean and Ervell each receiving $50,000, to help the emerging designers pursue their design plans.
You may not be familiar with Théallet's name (you can read a full bio from the designer's website by clicking here), but there's a pretty good chance you will. Past winners of the top prize are Alexander Wang (2008), Rogan (2007), Doo-Ri Chung (2006), Trovata (2005) and Proenza Schouler (2004).
-- Adam Tschorn
Photo: CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner, designer Sophie Théallet, right with hairstylist to the stars Frédéric Fekkai center and Fekkai's wife, Shirin von Wulffen, at the last night's awards dinner in New York City. Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Vogue
Drawing the international jet set, the Museum of Contemporary Art's 30th anniversary festivities this weekend were a reminder of how cozy the art and fashion worlds have become. Miuccia Prada kicked things off Friday night with a party at her epicenter on Rodeo Drive. All of the merchandise had been removed from the store, and the walls were covered in book-print wallpaper to celebrate the launch of the designer’s new tome, which documents the fashion house’s work on the runway and in film, art and architecture.
The same synergy was at work at the MOCA NEW gala Saturday, where Prada designed the costumes for a performance art piece created by her friend, Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli. Lady Gaga, in a crystal-mesh dress and a silver crinkly crown designed by Frank Gehry, played her song “Speechless” on a bright pink, butterfly-festooned piano customized by Damien Hirst as members of the Bolshoi Ballet twirled in tutus, also designed by Prada. (Nevermind that Michael York stumbled over Miuccia's name while introducing the work, described as the Ballets Russes, Italian-style.) The hat and costumes, as well as masks designed for the performance by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, are up for grabs in an online auction that ends Nov. 30, with proceeds benefiting the museum.
The event, which raised $4 million, was co-chaired by philanthropist Eli Broad (museum savior, who rescued MOCA from financial ruin earlier this year) and arts advocate Maria Bell, gallery owner Larry Gagosian and Russian-born art wunderkind Dasha Zhukova. Grand Avenue was closed to traffic to make way for the enormous party tent with a marquee entrance. The dinner's theme was Russian, with shots of vodka and pickled vegetables at the tables and Russian propaganda-style posters lining the walls.
Zhukova (above right), who is the girlfriend of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the editor of British fashion magazine Pop, and half of the design team for denim label Kova & T *, looked radiant (at 7 ½ months pregnant) in a spidery black macrame and crochet fringe Rodarte dress. The Russian beauty is a new star in the art collecting world, having founded the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow in September.
Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy sat at Zhukova's table, along with designer-photographer Hedi Slimane and 13-year-old blogger Tavi Williams (who told us, at the previous evening's Prada event, that she had been personally invited by Zhukova).
At the pre-dinner cocktail party (with music "curated" by Pharrell Williams -- is it just us or is "curated" just a fancy way of saying "built a playlist"?), we ran into Los Angeles designer Jeremy Scott, wearing a leather harness on top of his tuxedo jacket that perfectly played off his Mohawk coif, and chatted briefly with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton -- who told us with some measure of glee that though the glittery hoodie he was wearing was from American Apparel, he was really excited about the outfit he'd assembled for the upcoming American Music Awards. He described it as a "kind of but not really sailor suit": white with navy blue accents from Moods of Norway, white Doc Martens and hair dyed "Gwen Stefani blond."
Guests at our table included John Legend, dashing in a Prada tuxedo and bow tie, and his girlfriend, model Christine Teigen, who had to be sewn into her peach-colored, asymetrically draped Prada cocktail frock. She was having a problem with the zipper, she said, and luckily the Bolshoi Ballet’s tailor was on hand at the Prada store to help prevent a wardrobe malfunction.
Other party people included Katherine Ross, wife of Michael Govan, director of the L.A. County Museum of Art, who wore a black gown with a hand-pleated bodice by L.A.’s J.C. Obando; Vogue West Coast Editor Lisa Love chose a black sequin Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo; Elizabeth Wiatt in a painterly sheath by Erdem Moralioglu; and actress Marisa Tomei (on the arm of Decades' Cameron Silver) in vintage pink Jean Desses. Angelina Jolie (in a black velvet strapless Armani Prive gown) and Brad Pitt (in a Tom Ford tuxedo) came and went before the gala began, telling photographers they had to attend a friend's wedding.
After the Damien Hirst-decorated Steinway & Sons. piano was auctioned off for $450,000, the cool kids decamped to an after party at the Prism Gallery in West Hollywood. (The Prism, founded by 23-year-old Australian gallerist and artist PC Valmorbida, opened on Thursday night with yet another shindig). On the way in, we chatted with Nicky Hilton, who was all a-sparkle in a short black sequin Bob Mackie dress she borrowed from her mother. “She just gave me all of this stuff by Mackie. I love it,” she said.
Designers Angela and Margherita Missoni were there, as was Tom Ford — complaining about the lighting in the cramped VIP party in the old restaurant space next door. (Now that he’s a film director and all.) For a few moments we cooled our heels next to Neil Patrick Harris, who seemed to be valiantly trying to stand out of harm's way as VIPs swarmed the porch with the urgency of spawning salmon headed upstream.
When they came back on, and we found ourselves butt-to-butt with Eva Mendes and Brian Grazer, elbow-to-elbow with Takashi Murakami and bust-to-bust with Rose McGowan, it felt for all the world like the evening's performance art hadn't really ended when Lady Gaga left the stage.
It had just entered a second act.
-- Booth Moore and Adam Tschorn
*[Updated 11/17/09] An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Dasha Zhukova was no longer designing the label Kova & T.
Top photo: Lady Gaga, in a Prada dress and Frank Gehry hat, performing at the MOCA's 30th anniversary gala. Credit: Anne Johansson / For The Times.
Second photo from top: Dasha Zhukova in Rodarte. Credit: Wire Image.
Third photo: Marisa Tomei in vintage Jean Desses. Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Fourth photo: Designer Jeremy Scott. Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
Bottom photo: Rose McGowan in Donna Karan. Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Back in May, we told you about a limited-edition "Star Trek" X STPL X Airwalk high-top sneakers that were being released -- just 160 pairs in futuristic metallic silver with NCC-1701 embroidered on the heel, an example of how the future of apparel branding will involve the mining of TV and movie properties.
Now the other shoe has dropped with a full line of Starship Enterprise-influenced high-top sneakers beaming down to the shelves of a Payless near you, and Payless.com.
Like the limited kicks, this collection was designed by artist Jeff Staple (STPL), and the suede-with-canvas-accent shoes are served up in three Starfleet-uniform-inspired colorways of gold, blue and red and bear the triangular Starfleet insignia instantly recognizable to anyone who watched the 1966-69 sci-fi series.
At $49.99 they're a heck of a lot cheaper for the "Trek" fan on your holiday list than the $2,900 "Authentic James T. Kirk Captain's Chair" we recently spotted in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.
Photo: The STPL X Airwalk Hi Skate "Star Trek" Starfleet Edition ($49.99) boldly goes where no Enterprise crew member has gone before -- the aisles of Payless -- in colors inspired by the gold (command), blue (science) and red (security) uniforms of the Enterprise crew. Credit: CBS Consumer Products
I'd heard that the late Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, who passed away in August at age 36, was a sneakerhead, but I didn't realize how hard-core he was until I started researching the world of sneaker collecting for a story that appears in today's shoe-themed Image section.
When I was asking around for alpha dogs of the L.A. sneaker scene, several people were quick to mention Goldstein and his renowned collection of nearly 900 pairs of kicks. One of the folks who mentioned the celebrity disc jockey-club owner was Matt Halfhill, founder and editor of sneaker blog NiceKicks.com, and we wondered aloud what might have happened to his extensive sneaker collection.
As the Image section was going to press, we got our answer: More than 800 pairs of limited-edition shoes from that collection will go up for auction on EBay beginning today at 4:30 p.m. and running through Dec. 14 at www.ebay.com/djamshoes.
All proceeds will go to the DJ AM Memorial Fund, an organization described as "maintain[ing] the legacy of Adam Goldstein through extending his commitment to helping others struggling with addiction." Through an organization called Creative Visions, the funds are earmarked for groups and projects that deal with issues of addiction and recovery.
Among the lot of "dead stock" (sneakerhead parlance for brand-new, in-the-box, unworn shoes) and slightly worn sneakers are said to be a pair of Nike PlayStation Air Force 1s (Nike made only 200 pairs exclusively for a PlayStation party), a pair of Eminem Air Jordan 4s (only 50 pairs, commemorating Eminem's "Encore" album, were made, and pairs have reportedly changed hands for as much as $7,500), Supreme Dunks, Supa Dunks Air Jordan PE's ("PE" stands for "player exclusives," shoes made solely for an athlete but never intended for general release) and all kinds of vintage and retro pieces.
During the auction, 18 of the most exclusive pairs will be on display at the three L.A.-area Undefeated stores (La Brea, Santa Monica and Silver Lake), including Jay Z Air Force 1s, Zoo York Dunks, Pharrell Williams N.E.R.D Dunks and Tiffany Dunks.
The DJ AM Memorial Fund Charity Auction starts today at 4:30 p.m. PST and runs through Dec. 14, with new shoes added every evening through the first week in December.
-- Adam Tschorn
Photo: The late Adam Goldstein, aka DJ AM, surrounded by some of the rare and limited-edition shoes from his collection of 800-plus. Credit: The estate of Goldstein
Hear ye, hear ye: For the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Disney Store in the Westfield Culver City Shopping Center on Saturday, the Magic Kingdom is trotting out its newest royalty to meet the public.
Princess Tiana, from the upcoming movie "The Princess and the Frog," has apparently penciled 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. into her royal itinerary, and will be receiving guests and posing for photos in the mall court for what we're told is one of the few opportunities to see her in the flesh before the movie debuts on Nov. 25.
What's more, the first 100 kids in the store after its 10 a.m. opening will get free kid-sized Mickey Mouse ears, and everybody gets a 20%-off coupon to use toward purchases this weekend.
No word if Prince Naveen of Maldonia -- in human or amphibian form -- will be part of the royal entourage. If he jumps into the scene as the latter, practice your puckers, ladies.
The Disney Store at Westfield Culver City, 6000
Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City.
Photo: Prince Naveen and Princess Tiana in a still
from the upcoming Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog." Tiana is set to turn up at the new Disney Store in Culver City on Saturday to meet her
subjects and pose for pictures. Credit: Disney Enterprises Inc.
