If you prefer to buy gifts that also give back, you may want to
purchase an admission ticket to shop Project Angel Food's Divine Design
sale. The annual event, now in its 17th year, features mini-boutiques
of luxury fashion (Marc Jacobs, Elizabeth & James, Diane von
Furstenberg, Seven for All Mankind) at sample sale prices with 100% of
proceeds benefiting Project Angel Food.
Over two decades, Project Angel Food has delivered more than 6 million
meals to those debilitated by AIDS and other life-threatening
illnesses. The organization, staffed mainly by volunteers, has expanded
its reach to include those battling cancer and other diseases, with
women making up 37% of clients. In 2008, Project Angel Food served
nearly 600,000 meals to 2,340 people between the ages of 16 and 98.
This year, Divine Design kicks off its shopping days with a gala
honoring as its Man and Woman of Style actress Christina Hendricks
("Mad Men's" Joan Holloway) and Steven Kolb, executive director of the
Council of Fashion Designers of America. Elle magazine creative
director Joe Zee is among others to be honored.
Kolb carries such clout in the industry that this year's Divine Design
has brought in more than $6 million worth of donated apparel. (Last
year it pulled in around $4 million.) Kolb also elicited an infusion of
donations from newer CFDA members, such as Jason Wu and Gilded Age.
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
Last Thursday night, environmentally conscious celebrities and all-around fans of Alternative Apparel’s slouchy sweatshirts and super-soft loungy pieces gathered on the rooftop of the quaint Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood to celebrate the “Think Earth” T-shirt, sales of which benefit Global Green.
Model, mom and eco-friendly makeup line creator Josie Maran arrived early with her daughter in tow. Maran also appears in Alternative Apparel’s “ReThink” booklet, which highlights how various celebrities and notable names view and support the environment. Davis Factor -- also a party guest -- snapped a few of the book’s subject, such as Alicia Silverstone and Nina Clemente, wearing basics from the lifestyle line.
Alternative Apparel owner Greg Alterman, who started the line 14 years ago in his home state of Georgia, is looking to expand the brand into freestanding retail locations, so people can snap up their favorite cuts at one time. Also on deck: an expansion into ready-to-wear pieces such as the knit pants and a blazer Alterman was wearing at the party. Like American Apparel, but without all the irony.
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
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.]
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
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
Swiss watch brand IWC showed its support Wednesday night of the Charles Darwin Foundation’s mission to conserve the Galapagos Islands, with a celeb-studded evening showcasing the photography of Michael Muller. Large images of the Galapagos and the animals that inhabit the islands were projected on the stark white walls of a hangar at Milk Studios in Hollywood.
Eric Dane and Jason Bateman donned IWC watches while taking in the projected photographs. When IWC North America President Benoit de Clerck announced that the gift bags contained keys -- one of which will open a box with an IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Edition Galapagos at the IWC Beverly Hills boutique -- guests' focus immediately shifted from sea turtles to swag bags to claim their chance for a winning key.
That’s an early holiday gift for whoever scored the lucky key.
--Melissa Magsaysay
Photo: From left,Benoit de Clerck, Jason Bateman, Federick
Martel and Michael Muller. Credit: IWC
When I posted about the Peter Boyle memorial laugh-fest yesterday, I hadn't been able to get my hands on a proper photo of the opening act -- comedian Fred Willard in full Elvis Presley regalia.
His act at the myeloma fundraiser reimagined the King as if he'd chosen to go into stand-up comedy instead of music, complete with Willard's classic style of oddball observational humor like: "My doctor's name is Dr. Nick, that's short for Nickopoulos. Now that's a funny name." And my personal favorite: "I was at a bulimia convention in Vegas and a cake popped out of a girl."
Willard, a self-professed Presley fan has served up his version of the
King at least as far back as a 1978 episode of "Saturday Night Live"
and as recently as last month, when he portrayed an Elvis
impersonator in "Elvis and Juliet," a play written by his wife Mary
Willard and staged at the Grove Theatre in Upland. In fact, the
fantastic white jumpsuit with red embroidery he wore last weekend looks like the same one he wore for that production.
Then again, I can imagine Willard having that suit in his closet, ready to don at a moment's notice for comic effect.
Photo: Fred Willard reimagined Elvis Presley as a stand-up comic at a benefit for the Peter Boyle Memorial Fund at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and Club on Nov. 7. Credit: Jim Needham.
