Style L.A.: What are you wearing? Reader photo of the week, '70s flashback

This week, Los Angeles Times fashion critic Booth Moore weighs in on our reader photos. Her fave pick for the Style L.A.: What are you wearing? reader photo of the week was uploaded by Tracy of ProjectTracy.com in Los Angeles.

Tracy is channeling spring with her on-trend 1970s-inspired patterned maxi dress from H&M and wooden sandal heels by Miss Sixty.

"I have lived in Hollywood for 10 years, and the Hollywood sign still excites me," wrote Tracy. "It's glamorous. Just like this dress!"

Every week we'll choose a new reader photo to feature on our blog. Upload your pictures here. We can't wait to see what you put together.

Photo credit: Anastasia Nora Lee.

Style L.A.: What are you wearing? Reader photo of the week, Boho chic

This week's Style L.A.: What are you wearing? reader photo of the week was uploaded by Leanne Ford in Austin, Texas.

Ford is showing off her "Texas street style" at this year's SXSW, wearing a vintage hat and vintage tea jacket, American Eagle sheer top, Acne jeans and Jeffrey Campbell shoes. Ford's photo was shot by her husband, Brad Shaffer.

"If you want a fun night, put a hat on," she wrote.

Agreed. The hat adds character and gives the look a funky twist. Thanks for sharing that photo, Leanne!

Every week we'll choose a new reader photo to feature on our blog. Upload your pictures here.

Style L.A.: What are you wearing? Reader photo of the week

For our first Style L.A.: What are you wearing? reader photo of the week we chose a picture uploaded by Neekoh.

"I love when an outfit comes out better than I had imagined it in my head," wrote Neekoh. "I'm wearing Forever 21 blazer, skirt, sunglasses, purse and necklace, a Marc by Marc Jacobs top and Jessica Simpson shoes."

Her chunky gold necklace gives her nautical stripes a chic urban twist and the glasses are classic Hepburn. Thanks so much Neekoh, we love what you put together. Every week we'll choose a new reader photo to feature on our blog. Upload your pictures here.

Reader photo call for Style L.A.: We want to know what you're wearing

Calling all fashionistas! We want to see what you're wearing. Do you have a favorite pair of vintage pumps? Maybe a new Chanel bag, a pair of jeans that fit just right or a fabulous dress?  We want to see it all. Style L.A.: What are you wearing? is about the fashion scene in Los Angeles and your style.

Friday we will feature our favorite reader photo of the week from our Style: L.A.: What are you wearing? reader photo gallery.

Pictured above at left is Janet Schultz of Silver Lake who describes her wardrobe as "it's all pretty much vintage." "I always show at least one pop of bright color," she says. To the right is Chelsea Knights of Long Beach, who made the necklace and earrings she's wearing. "I wear a lot of vintage mostly. I always wear heels because I want to be taller. I love all colors, so bright colors and black combinations are good too."

Upload pictures of your style here and every week the Image section will pick a favorite look to feature right here on the All the Rage blog. We can't wait to see your definition of style.

Photos: Janet Schultz and Chelsea Knights. Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / For The Times.

Reader photo call: Style L.A.: What are you wearing?

Calling all fashionistas! We want to see what you're wearing. Do you have a favorite pair of vintage pumps? Maybe a new Chanel bag, a pair of jeans that fit just right or a fabulous dress?  We want to see it all. Style L.A.: What are you wearing? is about the fashion scene in Los Angeles and your style.

Pictured above at left is Ping Ping Chen, 30, of downtown L.A., who says she is "pretty much girly." She likes to mix up "fabrics, layers and textures" so that she's "sparkly disco." She is pictured in front of her artwork. To the right is Brandi Magee of Larchmont Village. "My style is a mixture of modern and retro," says Magee. "I come from an era around the '50s. It's something I feel inside and it manifests itself in my style."

Upload pictures of your style here and every week the Image section will pick a favorite look to feature right here on the All the Rage blog. We can't wait to see your definition of style. 

Photo from left: Ping Ping Chen and Brandi Magee. Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / For The Times.

Style L.A.: What are you wearing?

You think you're fashionable? Let's see it. Upload pictures of your style, a look you admire or someone's style you just can't ignore. Fashion isn't merely about brand names or price tags; it's about how you present yourself to the world. It's about what you put together and how you make it your own. Every week the Image section will chose a favorite look to share with our readers on the All The Rage blog. We can't wait to see your definition of style!

Upload your photos here. Photos must always be a faithful representation of the original image without exaggerated use of photo editing tools and must not be digitally altered beyond minor color/exposure correction and removal of dust. Be sure to include what someone is wearing, where and when the picture was taken. Include your name and city of residence as well. We'll credit you, of course and photographers agree that The Times may reproduce photos in any format.

Photo: From left, Audrey Kitching in Downtown Burbank says her look is " David Bowie meets Dolly Parton meets a hippie." She's wearing a jacket from her mom's honeymoon, a scarf from a thrift store and some shorts that ended up in her friend's car; Ja'Lon Johnson in Century City says his look is "urban yet sophisticated." He's wearing a Forever 21 necklace and Diesel jeans; Darcy Rosebrock in Melrose is in classic black vintage mode. Credit for all: Colin Young-Wolff / For The Times.

Street Fashion: The Colony

Street fashion photographer Colin Young-Wolff captures the scene at the Colony nightclub in Los Angeles. Check out the full gallery here. For more street fashion galleries, visit the Image Street Fashion page.

-- Jenn Harris

Photo: Leia Contois from Lake Tahoe at the Colony. Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / For The Times.

Fashion blog project tracks street style trends around the world

When Joie Reinstein graduated with a fashion marketing degree from Parson's The New School for Design this summer, the dour economy rendered job prospects practically nonexistent.

So instead of groveling for a pay-free internship at a fashion house, she went with her Plan B — traveling the world in an attempt to connnect the dots in global fashion trends by photographing (and contextualizing) urban street style on her blog, Pattern Recognition. 

Reinstein, 29, named the one-woman endeavor Radicant Fashion — a radicant is a plant that creates roots and adapts to its environment as it moves along, which Reinstein likens to "the very definition of a modern trend."

At the tail end of her jaunt, she's in L.A., having snapped the hyper-styled set throughout the streets of New York, Paris, London, Helskini, Copenhagen, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Rounding out the tour will be Rio and, "hopefully," Sao Paulo.

Though each city interprets trends a little differently, Reinstein said she's found more commonalities in the way people dress around the world than differences — and offered a hypothesis of sorts: "Through the Internet we share more and more references," she said. "As a result, we’re becoming more and more on the same page in terms of what we do with fashion. And fashion is a barometer for what's going on in the world."

Reinstein, who, all told, will have spent four months on the project once it's finished, said she's less interested in brands and more interested in the elements of identity and culture encoded in the way people festoon themselves.

"I feel style is something anyone can have anywhere and it's not about money," she said.

In the end, Reinstein — who's hoping to land a job in trend forecasting once the project is complete — hopes to pull together all the data (in this case, where floor-length skirts made their latest debut, etc.) and "make a big conclusion." 

And even perhaps discover the long answer for a butterfly wings-style question she posed at the start of the project: "Does what a guy in Rio wear affect what a girl wears on the Lower East Side of New York?"

See photos from our Street Fashion photographer Colin Young-Wolff on our Street Fashion page here.

--Emili Vesilind

Photos: Street style photos from Tokyo, top, and Copenhagen, part of Radicant Fashion. Credit: Joie Reinstein.

Icons: Edie Sedgwick's style can still inspire, decades after the Warhol muse's heyday

Everybody still loves Edie.

Recently, a packed house at Cinefamily watched Andy Warhol’s doomed muse, Edie Sedgwick, bat those famous heavily mascaraed eyelashes one more time, in the semiautobiographical 1970 feature, "Ciao! Manhattan."

Shot in fits and starts over the course of five years, the film is both Edie in her sparkle-and-shine prime and Edie floating lost. With "Ciao!" the California-born ranchland heiress was still struggling to find redemption -- this time in hyper-fiction -- a gorgeously shot, vaguely psychedelic, cult film version of her own real-life downfall.

Within a year of "Ciao’s" completion, Edie would be dead of a drug overdose at 28.  But dying young and looking good have made her a martyr and a myth.

“Edie personifies the fundamental human urge for self exploration and artistic expression of an exceptional life of character with fearless, reckless abandon,” explains David Weisman, the co-director, producer and creative force behind "Ciao! Manhattan."

Cobra Snake to nest at Hollywood & Highland

It looks like the peripatetic Cobra Snake is sinking his fangs into bricks-and-mortar retail -- at least temporarily.

On Wednesday we got word that local photographer, occasional fashion-show fixture, gadabout, and petri dish of pop culture Mark "the Cobra Snake" Hunter is opening his own vintage-clothing store in the Hollywood & Highland Center.

Dubbed the Cobra Shop and slated to officially open on June 16, we're told the 2,000-square-foot space with "crazy high ceilings" (Hunter's words, not ours) will be located on the mall's fourth level across from the Hollywood Grill.

Offerings will include a selection of vintage clothing (personally scrounged and sourced by Cobra Snake) similar to the screened Tweety Bird T-shirts, crushed velvet dresses and Mexican ponchos he's been selling through the online incarnation of the Cobra Shop for awhile now, as well as archival pieces by fashion designer Jeremy Scott, screen prints by Shepard Fairey, limited-edition books by Todd Selby, T-shirts from Dim Mak collection and Steve Aoki's personal shoe collection.

If the merchandise mix sounds mind-bending, hold on to your brain pan because the interior decor matches it. The press materials call it a "combination retail store-art gallery-secret clubhouse-video game arcade-photography studio-hot spot-recreational facility" decorated with cardboard cutouts of '90s-era celebrities and taxidermied animals (apparently on loan from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County -- who knew they did loaners?) accessorized with sunglasses.

If you can't wait until mid-month to marvel at the mayhem, make sure to beat feat to the grand opening party slated for June 8. Hosted by Jeremy Scott, it doubles as the exclusive Los Angeles book signing for Todd Selby's new book "The Selby Is in Your Place" and will feature a DJ set by artist Shepard Fairey and  a live performance by someone who calls himself Beardo.

Also in attendance will be "Grandmasnake" and "Grandpasnake" (we're assuming those are Hunter's grandparents, no word if they're "maternalsnakes" or "paternalsnakes"), and a veritable Woodstock's worth of the wingnuts that populate his trippy Cobra-verse.

"[The shop] will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.," Hunter informed us by e-mail. "At least until September. And then we will either continue at that location or move to something more crazy," 

Consider yourself forewarned.

-- Adam Tschorn

Of Trekkie kicks and Cobra Snakes

L.A. Fashion's Class of 2010

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Photo: Shutterbug Mark Hunter, a.k.a. the Cobra Snake, is opening a vintage-clothing store/rumpus room called the Cobra Shop in the Hollywood & Highland Center on June 16. Credit: Marvin Scott Jarrett.