“Bon Vivants: 11 Stories and Habits of Highly Effective BVs.”
Written by a well-published and widely read Bon Vivant author. Me.
#1 “Join the bon-vivant! You can too! It’s never about pedigree, and always about wit, drama, intrigue, good and stylish outfits and bohemian silliness…”
(and taking the summer off from blogging!)
We admit it. We were more taken by Bon Vivant Country weekends than blogging…but we’re back.
Here’s the first story. Sweaty summer kids, we were invited one particular weekend by our country gentleman friend, John Favreau, to his Little Lake in Warren, Connecticut, where “How to Join the Bon Vivant Life” was encapsulated at every turn. little marvin and I donned our best wigs, packed some BBQ chicken wings and Gatorade and set on our journey. Above is tall little marvin on the right in the conked long straight wig and you can guess little me from the coiffed frizz, proudly rockin the hair of my people. Thankfully, the right white coif is de riguer for the country set!
Tumbling stylishly off the train, and strutting over runway-style in the bright sunshine to John, who picked us up in his white convertible Mercedes, we hopped in and drove sportily across the rolling hillettes, directly into the pedigreed land of Connecticut estates. (hold on to those chicken wings and wigs Kidz!)
Pointing out the estates of the rich and powerful, John said sportily, as an aside, that you don’t necessarily need good genes or a pedigree to hang with the “Manor born.” John’s own Vanity Fair-worthy story of Philadelphia society in the 80’s got us thinking if this were true. In my own home town of Brotherly Love, John played house-boy host to this century’s most notable Bon Vivants from Nancy Brewster Grace, Henry McIlhenny to Lady Sarah Churchill, to Hope Montgomery Scott, the woman who inspired the Oscar-winning film, The Philadelphia Story andwhomVanity Fair once called “the unofficial queen of Philadelphia‘s WASP oligarchy.” John traveled the world with notable Salonist and photographer of the whole scene, Gloria Bragiotti Etting. I recalled my favorite W. Somerset Maugham quote, ” It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”
Could it be that anybody can charm the charmed society? Armed only with grand vision, a sense of generosity about oneself and others and seeking the best of the best? I was inspired to explore the subject. I am neither a Self-Help Author or Fashion Journalist but these Eleven Stories, Quotes, Anecdotes and Habits from Eleven Real Bon Vivants, from Dame Vivienne Westwood to Francine du Plessix Gray, can set you on your path to better living!
#2 Wake People up like Showy, Strutting Roosters!
We’ve arrived! Are you not happy? Be and Welcome showy guests such as Pamela Anderson, Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler and fun is immediately assured. John does. He routinely hosts guests ranging a house full of photo shoot producers and models from Gradient magazine to a lively, costumed crowd at a pirate themed party attended by neighbors including Richard and John of Lambertson & Truex and Privet, their haute shop; trend spotter and paper-doll designer, David Wolfe: Author, Amanda Hallay and Painter, Pierre Hale and of course…us.
#3 “Survival of The Fittest! Nature and Society eats whatever is
boring, injured, useless or dumb.” so says John.
John Favreau is a most elegant country gentleman, one who owns lots of bucolic land, cans his own home-made jam and can be equally consumed with the foxes on Wall Street or the foxes attempting to get into his home-made chicken roost. Clearly you either eat or get eaten, and the facts of life are somehow more raw when they float just beneath a postcard pretty scene. Nature’s thorns and thistles of life are abundant and we have the choice to corral our survival tendencies into Fear or equal ourselves to elements of Nature and moment to moment seek how to live the good life by being useful.
The Ultimate Bon Vivant is Nature herself, laughing at our Sisyphean tasks within her wilds, such as my task to be fascinated with Bon Vivants, perhaps as dumb to Nature as Fitzcarraldo’s Opera House in the Amazon and even the making of such as recently described in Werner Herzog’s obscene jungle love in Conquest of the Useless.
I pondered on this given my reading for the trip, Black Elk, The Sacred Ways of A Lakota, on the simple, multi-universe lives of Black Elk and his channupa pipe. Part of my attempt to try to be all Thoreau-like in the country hence, resulting in my best Man vs. Nature BV habit advice which is to Join The Cult of The Appreciative No Matter What or Where You Are and:
#4 When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
#5 Give Good Story. “The ability to be a raconteur is key,” says John.
- Be a handsome, well-groomed, gallant or flamboyant person
- Be obsessive about refined language, facts and obscure, wearying hobbies (especially those requiring lads, Dads or gladhands to assist)
- Be a self-made person, live a magnified style of life regardless of background
#6 Lose The Youth. Hang with Elders, the wise and cultured.
#7 Claim intriguing genes!
“My mother enjoyed claiming direct descent from Genghis Khan,” which gave her “…both the aristocratic pedigree and the freedom to be a barbarian.” said Francine du Plessix Gray.
Alex was a noted artist and later the longtime editorial director of Vogue magazine and then of Condé Nast Publications. The Libermans were pure party people in media, art and fashion circles. His BV advice was to preserve one’s personal life, to identify one’s instinct, and never to carry packages for people. Francine came to Connecticut when she married the painter Cleve Gray. Content to keep the drama of suffering to her biographies of the Marquis de Sade and Simone Weil, as the New York Times said, she turned her back on the high life and instead made some great pies.
“Living proof that charm and experience will always matter more than Money.”
Thus ran the headline of David Patrick Columbia’s piece for Quest magazine on Philadelphia socialite Gloria Etting.
John Favreau earned his pedigree as a cook, party planner, entertainer and travel companion for art-world esthetes, Gloria Braggiotti Etting and her artist husband Emlen. He cut his teeth as Nancy Brewster-Grace’s house boy and then went on to plan parties and travel with Gloria. Nancy entertained Red Grooms, Henry Mcilhenney, his sister Bonnie Winterstein, Peggy and George Cheston, artists, architects, designers and literary types (Sir Stephen Spender, Arthur Clarke, Robert Venturi, etc.) Gloria’s Italian-Boston theatrical family background featured growing up with the Cushing sisters who became Babe Paley, Betsey Roosevelt and Minnie Astor by way of marriage, and her fashion editor position at The New York Post were only part of her pedigree as per The Philadelphia Museum of Art as the consumate salon hostess. Gloria’s bohemian and aristocratic past made her noted for antics like putting anatomically correct ancient Etruscan statuettes on the dining table for shock and conversation value. (John notes, ” On the same vein,it was Hope Scott who had a medieval chastity belt, which used to make Walter Annenberg laugh riotously!!)
She voraciously traveled and photographed her friends, Henry Mcllhenny, Claudette Colbert, Truman Capote, Perry Rathbone, Isamu Noguchi, Isek Dineson, Jacques Tati, Tennessee Williams, Buckminster Fuller, Alexander Calder, Elizabeth Taylor, George Balanchine, Salvatore Dali and Gala, Picasso, Jackie O, Maxime de la Falaise and Martha Graham. The Philadelphia press wrote of Gloria after her passing, that she was one “who gathered friends with the kind of passion others have for collecting stamps, art or butterflies.”
John. Write this book!
#9 Utilize costumes!
In honor of John’s costume and crossing the tracks and highways of social boundaries, the rest of these tips are shallowly slave to how mere fashion and affectations can deliver one to the right circles.
#10 “Own, Display and Wear Tribal Symbols Brightly and Irreverently…never, ever wear them in tribes though,” says Me, “Pick a country or street club trademark…
like Plaids, Tartans, Monograms or Gang Bandanas…just rock it smartly and incessantly!”
little marvin, Jade and John sartorially Cavort in Connecticut
My room at John’s was the perfect mix of “Tribal Symbols.” Both the Call of the Wild and the Call of the Cultured surrounded me, from the lush sand colored kangaroo skin bedspread to the Pierre Hale hand-painted ceiling border with Nina Simone lyrics running the circumference…”It’s a new dawn, It’s a new day. It’s a new life, for me, And I’m feeling good.”
On an elegant side table was a signed copy of Gloria’s sleek little photography book of high society and artists from the 1970 and 80’s on top of a signed copy of a huge coffee table book for the color and history addicted fashion slaves called “Tartan, Romancing The Plaid.”
Tartans, whale print pants and feather boas, Medieval chastity belts and flowing fine wine …tribes, tribal symbols and people are always best mixed.
If you want expert advice on how to wear tartan, see Mr. Peacock’s recent post here.
They say the word “tartan” comes from the French word, “tirer” translating “to pull”, but I hear the etymology of tartan in the word “tantra” in Sanskrit, which means “to weave.” Most people associate the word tantra just with sexual practices, in which weaving certainly is required, however it actually refers to a universal weaving of desire, energies, elements and people. Perhaps this is a key root to the symbolism of tartan and its visual tribal metaphor for “belonging” whether it is society or a rejection of society. It always reads passion and a rich expression.
Jeffrey Banks, the author of Tartan, Romancing The Plaid, writes, “But tartan is more than a design, it is a sign; and while it signifies kinship (real or imagined), country, and celebration of the Scots, its subtext is dignity, distinctiveness and a sense of belonging- qualities that possess universal appeal.”
Philadelphia Number Story #5. Reading Jeffrey’s book, I recalled my own first odd meeting of tartan and world views at my Jewish father’s children’s clothing store, where he would outfit the Catholic parochial school children in their tartan uniforms. I watched them as if they were wild animals from afar in my chic Petit Bateau T and Dittos hipster jeans. The tiny Catholic children had the odd mixed face of trying to look excited about their new unsightly uniform while pain and confusion darted beneath their eyes. I suppose this memory did much to cement my ideas of personal style, religion and the passion for the bon vivant life.
Years ago, John lent me another fascinating book, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. Did you know that umbrellas were invented by Louis XVI, whose Midas-focused eyes were in hot pursuit of the 24-7 bon vivant life and as a result gave us full-length mirrors, cafe lighting, champagne and gourmet cuisine?
Gaultier and Rhianna are two modern icons who can also suddenly wake you up with plaid and unexpected style and vision.
Dame Vivienne Westwood gives good arrivals and is one of the best examples of a Bon Vivant. Westwood orange follows Vreeland red follows Shiparelli pink. Her husband, Andreas Kronthaler follows gang bandanas, follows Malcolm McLaren and they all follow tribal mash-ups to supreme effect.#11 A. Reference Nature and Eastern Mysticism Often.
Madonna, The Beatles, Rasputin, Marquis de Sade, Mata Hari, James Bond, Sarah Palin, Madame Blavatsky, all Bon Vivant seducers whose sultry mix of the sacred and profane references hit the spot. Try these Bon Vivant requirements on for size courtesy of the above characters, a quirky historic account of the mysterious Madame Blavatsky, Robert Greene’s book, The Art of Seduction and my own inventions.
- Escape, claim or disdain your royal, exotic or mundane roots
- Walk with Royal carriage or at least employ car service
- Use make-up or facial expressions to make Eyes like Helena Blavatsky, who had ” large, luminous blue eyes whose strange spiritual expression fascinated all who came within her influence”
- Reference immortal experience to create an age uncertain
- Utter prophetic and seductive visions at uncanny times
- Gather a curious mixed set of literary and artistic friends, Bohemians, visionaries, cranks and an occasional practical thinker from Wall street or the colleges
- Be a conversationalist of rare magnetic power
- Like Helena, be “an accomplished linguist, as most Russians are, “she spoke French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Hindostanee and several Arabic dialects with east and fluency”
- Display a deep knowledge of the ancient and modern literature and philosophy of many lands
- Enjoy robust dinners washed down by good wine
- Cultivate odd, disarming wee habits, so as to humanize and have others feel superior over you, such as feigned incongruous insecurities or smoking Turkish cigarettes of a peculiar and excellent quality
- Never be a Bore
Upon being myself, a self-proclaimed well-known Author, I am a student of Mysteries, Tibetan Tantric Black Hat Sect Feng Shui and Eastern Sciences since the tender age of 16, I offer my spiritual bon mots, enthusiastic wine drinking and enjoyment of fine foods to the Hosts and Hostesses of the World. As proof of my powers, I offer this image of Neith, Egyptian Goddess of Weaving, Water and War. It’s so very Me…right?
Here is the reading from the I Ching, The Chinese Book of Changes, I pulled before we set sail for Little Lake…it will astonish and seduce you to its ancient Nature-based wisdom.
Today in I Ching Astrology, the Lake trigram rules the roost. Sometimes known as the Lake, this Star is called the 7 Lake Star and is owned by the fun loving and courteous Youngest Daughter in the I Ching family. Today her chi will pervade all the Stars differently during this 8 Mountain month.
One of the best activities today is to chill out! Also to reflect. Take time to meditate quietly about the week ahead for you. No real action, simply enjoy and take it easy.
This Star also belongs to the west. Here when the image of sunset comes into play it can mean to party, be with friends and family and let your hair down. The youngest daughter has few responsibilities in the family and she knows how to entertain. (from Jon Sandifer’s blog )
Kind of apt that this actually rules September 2009 as well.
…and finally, the last words on The Bon Vivant Life, Nature, the Sunset of Summer Weekends, and The Curious Sisyphan task of Blogging? Go Nina Simone…with the best advice yet.
Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Reeds driftin on by you know how I feel
(refrain:)
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom in the tree you know how I feel
(refrain)
Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you know
Butterflies all havin’ fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done
That’s what I mean
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me
Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
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Tags: Alexander Liberman, Amanda Hallay, Andreas Kronthaler, Ann Leary, Babe Paley, Betsey Roosevelt, Bill Blass, Black Elk, Bon Vivant, bon vivants, Bond, Burberry, Claudette Colbert, Cleve Gray, Conquest of the Useless, Cushing sisters, dandies, David Patrick Columbia, Denis Leary, Egyptian Goddess, famous bon vivants, Francine du Plessix Gray, George Balanchine, Gloria Etting, Goyard, Henri David, Henry McIlhenny, Hope Scott, how to be a bon vivant, How'd You Get So Rich, Isek Dineson, jade dressler, James Bond, Jeffrey Banks, Joan Rivers, John Favreau, JOhn Paul Gaultier, Katherine Hepburn, Kelly Lebwith, Lady Scott Churchill, Little Marvin, Madame Blavatsky, Madonna, Malcolm McClaren, Martha Graham, Mata hari, Maxime de la Falaise, Minnie Astor, Mr. Peacock, musee de les arts decoratif, Nancy Brewster Grace, Neith, NYC country weekends, on golden pond, Pamela Andreson, Philadelphia society, Philip Roth, Pierre Hale, Rasputin, Rhianna, Robert Greene, Rosemarie Bravo, Scotland, Scots, seducers, tartan, tartan 2012, tartan fashion, The Art of Seduction, The Beatles, The Philadelphia Story, The Scottish Are coming, The Sex Pistols, Them, Vivienne Westwood, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Warren Connecticut, Werner Herzog
Peeking Behind The Diva Curtain
Diva the movie
Mandatory accessories behind every Diva are tons of devoted fans or even one lone obsessive soul. For me, the metaphor for Diva worship is the cult 80’s film of the same name directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, about a young man who is obsessed with a stunningly beautiful opera singer played by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez. The Diva never allows her performances recorded yet this young postal worker secretly and illegally tape records her performance one night and steals a gown from her dressing room.
Diva, Paris evening
Against an operatic Vladimir Cosma score including Sentimental Walk and the aria from La Wally the film speeds and pines with racy 80’s music and Zen droning chimes, it is a kooky case of who is possessed by whom. Mistakenly switched tapes puts the young postal worker in the midst of a crime caper which results in all manner of characters, obscure and wonderful environments like a high-style labyrinth (in more ways than one) behind the city stage of Paris. The Diva-obsessed postman himself lives in a huge loft with fantasy car murals, neon and abandoned luxury car wrecks evocative of the worlds just beneath our surface.
The Postman's Loft
Movie-like Serendipity, Gown-Flying Mayhem and feeling like you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole can often be just another evening in NYC. Specifically in that department, every year the New York City Opera’s City Opera Thrift Shop fundraising event, Divas Shop for Opera, feels like some kind of a movie caper. From Fred of the B52’s to Pat Field to crowds of tranvestites and club kids mixing with socialites…put several 100 varied people in a room with low prices and high-end thrift shopping to benefit the Opera’s costume budget via it’s thrift store, which Vogue magazine calls “The highest quality thrift shop in New York,” …and well…suddenly everyone is a Diva.
This year’s event reminded me of the movie Diva. Usually held in a vast loft space, this year it was 2 floors of crowds, chaos and thrills. We took pictures of the most interesting people and upon digging deeper found truly remarkable individuals that are Divas in their own Worlds.
(Listening to the music from Diva, while writing this post, I recalled with mixed tears and smiles my 1980’s Desperately Seeking Susan inspired thrifting capers with my boyfriend, Jose, he in a satin dressing gown and huge Dutch wooden shoes, both of us taking turns on the thrift-purchased megaphone, careening down the streets of Philadelphia, intoxicated with Love and the giddiness of thrifting.)
Austin Scarlett, Lori Sutherland
Lori Sutherland is The Diva of the event. Behind the shop’s Director, Eric Hagmueller is the gorgeous Dame Lori and behind Lori is a couture-savvy stylist who “Soul-Styles” her clients with expertise hovering neatly between her Buddhist Chaplain studies and her studies of Pleasure with world experts such as Mama Gena. Austin Scarlett is a designer who got his start with Project Runway, (I had a very pre-Project Runway early street style picture of him, taken by Time-Out magazine, with his huge white fur hat and round hat box purse to inspire me as it was pasted to the inside of my closet for years). A Boy Who Lives Beyond.
Austin Scarlett at Young Fellows
Outside we found this adorable couple. Very Non-Diva-like they simply said what they did with no flourishes which made them even more impressive.
Ted Lee and E.V.Day
E.V.Day told me she is doing an installation with opera costumes for the Opera, but when you google this installation artist represented by Deitch Projects, you realize she is not just an exhibition designer but a well-established artist collected by museums such as the Whitney with pieces like this next image. It reminds me of a white Jackson Pollack action painting in 3D. (Bride Fight 2006)
E.V.Day
Here is the image from the article in New York Times on E.V. Day’s installation using vintage costumes (and the part about the underwear is fascinating!)
And E.V.’s boyfriend/husband/friend Ted Lee, who humbly told me he was a “cookbook writer” just happens to be one half of the Southern cooking duo, The Lee Brothers.
The Lee Brothers, cookbook authors and wine experts
Also there was Amy Fine Collins, who is best known as the muse to Geoffrey Beene and Ralph Rucci. The fact that she is a Vanity Fair magazine writer and style icon who lives in my dream home in NYC makes her even more lovable. She has supported the NYC Opera for years.
Amy Fine Collins
A collector of fashion-pedigree art and furnishings, she pens her work at the desk once belonging to Hugh Hefner and furthermore has an elephantine Rolodex which is one of my enduring loves for it’s design and simple function.
Amy Fine Collins writes at Hugh Hefner's desk
(Amy Fine Collins in Peak of Chic by way of Elle Decor)
We caught leith ter meulen, (no caps requested) CEO and President of Landair Project Resources, managing some of the most noteworthy arts organization, municipal and corporate real estate projects in the city, as she emerged with her findings. She was elegant, funny and had to take two cabs home.
Christine Traina
Christine Traina, VP, Commercial Sales and Leasing with The Grossberg-Sroka Group-Prudential Douglas Elliman RE, was thrilled most about her Grandmother’s vintage diamante pin. The quilted coat from Donna Karan was stellar, the stitches forming designs like a quilt from the 1900’s meeting Mondrian. And the shoes!
Lorry Newhouse,Lauren Bridgeman and Amy Fine Collins
Lorry Newhouse is an Opera supporter stalwart, Lauren works at the store and owns the best profile in NYC. Lorry is here with Michael Bruno, the expat in Paris who started 1stdibs.com which he describes himself as “eBay for rich people.” And I would add that it is the epitome of upscale “thrifting”, with experts and items coming from the best European sources. Reserved for those who pronounce “thrift” and “flea market” as “Marche Aux Puces.”
Michael Bruno's Paris home
Michael Bruno’s Paris living room is a showcase for thrift decor with its Cubist painting from the 1940s and electric blue furniture from the same era in its original silk, from 1stdibs.com. This image is from the Rizzoli book, Rooms to Inspire by Annie Kelly, photography by Tim Street-Porter.
Ava Kaplan, Clair Watson, Lori Sutherland
And really, this is New York City’s Diva of Vintage Couture. Clair Watson at 1stdibs.com. Clair was instrumental in creating upscale thrift in New York City and as Couture Director for Doyle Auctions she is The Diva. I love what she calls her design mantra (after Carlos Castenada), “Everything has its beneficial spot.”
*********
So I have Peeked Behind the Diva Curtain. Finding the jewel in the dirt, flea market or thrift shop bin opens the immediate experience. Mirrors it Serendipitously. Honoring, firing the imagination with history, it is a travel through Life Operatically. The Larger than Life style of a Diva. The Art of Watching. Knowing you are on Life’s Stage being Observed and identifying Who is Observing. A thrift shop is Enlightening! YOU better be dressed for it!
This still is also from the movie Diva. Many event photographs by The Kaitlyn Barlow, credits where known, please advise if you took some of these images!
The City Opera Thrift Store is 222 East 23rd Street between 2nd and 3rd Aves. New York City 212.684.5344
written by Jade Dressler
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Tags: 1st dibs, 80's movie Diva, Amy Fine Collins, aria from La Wally, Austin Scarlett, best thrift shop in New York, best thrift shop in NYC, Christine Traina, Clair Watson, Dame Lori, designer muse, Diva, Divas Shop for Opera, E.V. Day, famous movie lofts, Fred B52's, jade dressler, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Kaitlyn Barlow, Landair Project Resources, Lauren Bridgeman, leith ter meulen, lofts in Paris, Lori Sutherland, Lorry Newhouse, Mama Gena, Michael Bruno, movie loft in Paris, New York City Opera, New York City Opera Shop for Opera, Paris flea markets, Paris living spaces, Pat Field, Rooms to Inspire, The Lee Brothers, The movie Diva, Vladimir Cosma, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez
New York City on the make is a churning pot of all kinds of Mob-Stars and Fame Gamers. The best New York stories happen every minute… when fortune smiles in chance meetings, in a flash hard work for years is rewarded, creative collabs are formed or the hand of Fate puts one suddenly on the map.
For a fashion designer, having the most visible and important woman in the world wear your dress on a major historic occasion just because she loves your work (without any mob influence, horse heads or gratuitous “celeb stylist” posturings)…this a classic New York City lore of “Making It” adding Isabel and Ruben Toledo to the illustrious list that includes Madonna, Ivanka and Gaga, Woody Allen and Warhol, The Dons King, Trump and Corleone, Spike Lee, Jay Z and P. Diddy, DVF, SNL and…Speidi?…and many other twirling wanna-bes who have officially crossed over the tracks.
“Don’t ever think you’ve made it, because it’s all downhill from there,” Toledo joked the other day in the Wall Street Journal, “I made it when I was 8 years old and I made my first garment — how about that? I fell in love with the make.”
This Self-Made original woman was one lithe slice of joy in her simple sleeveless white sheath, upon the opening this week on Tuesday night of the FIT Exhibit,Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out, which runs June 17 through September 26, 2009.
As a jewelry designer in the 1980’s and 90’s my first memory and vision of the Toledos remains Ruben’s sketches of women in Details and other downtown magazines that ran along side images of our jewelry. When I realized he and his wife looked like and were actually the living characters I loved in the drawings and plus…they were living and creating for “The Love of The Make”… I was smitten. My life has been lived first for creativity and to share and inspire that with others is The Path of Those In Love with The Make.
Kind of perfect then that the dress that puts the Toledos on the map was metaphorically (intentionally?) designed to look like a swath through a bright green Spring meadow, shining with lights and gathered near the heart, worn by a woman who could easily be the President herself. Michelle too is one-half also of an integral strong and creative partnership, perhaps THE most important in the world right this minute.
Invited to the cocktail party by the FIT costume exhibit co-creators Dr. Valerie Steele and Patricia Mears, I in turn invited one of my co-creators, life-inspirer and new designer, little marvin, to “make” this post as we sparred over which black lace dress in Isabel’s Shadow series was the bomb. (I loved the one with the red-tie at the neck, he loved the sheer shirtdress.) A Renaissance man, who sleeps head cradled between two biographies, Gandhi and Richard Branson, little marvin embodies both men in his creative world as a producer of non-scripted-scripted programming, writer/personality, designer and humanitarian.
The spirit of the evening was full of friends and New York’s Fashion Gang Stars including Andre Leon Talley, Cator Sparks, Patrick McDonald, Simon Doonan, Joey Arias, Kim Hastrieter and Bethann Hardison, to name a few. Interestingly, some noteworthy creative partners were also on the scene (since that is a very Isabel and Ruben theme we must repeat it unceasingly) such as Carmela Spinelli (who was Tim Gunn’s co-creator at Parsons), Lori Sutherland and Eric Hagmueller, who together rock the upcoming (covered here) New York City Opera Divas Shop for Opera (where Isabel and Ruben are co-chairs this year), Philippe Blond (sans David) and Amy Rosi and Peter Rosenthal.
Herewith is a view of the event via the continuance of the sparring that sparked from a combo of 4 glasses of wine, 2 “In Love With The Make” know-it-alls in front of 6 of Isabel’s black lace Shadow collection confections in a room full of infectious Toledo-ness.
Meet little marvin here and see his latest project from Monte Carlo.
Jade: What did you witness tonight at the party that you will always remember?
lm: How graciously Isabel & Ruben received each and every single guest that walked in (myself included)… a perfectly-suited Ruben, passed out post-exhibit on a bench with a bouquet in his tiny, pale grip (very Tim Burton directs “Evita”)… playing “revolving doors” with Andre Leon Talley (sadly, not a sexual position)
As a producer of non-scripted programming, what reality series would you make about Isabel & Ruben?
I’m seeing lots of lemongrass brocade and pop-locking. So You Think You Can Sew?
The year is 2020 (we survived 2012, thank God and the new-age angels!) What is Isabel Toledo’s legacy? If she never designed Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress, how would our world be the same or different?
If Isabel had never designed M.O.’s inauguration dress, then one might surmise that B.O. had never won the election. The truly important fashion questions then become: Would Aretha have sang at McCain’s swearing in? And would Cindy have allowed A.F. to wear that hat? I guess what I’m really trying to say is: Thank you Isabel.
Describe your favorite piece in the show and your experience seeing it.
I really loved this simple, yet exquisitely sculpted, gray cashmere trench (which the Toledo’s lawyer, was quick to point out to me, would be available at Barney’s shortly. Love lawyers!)
Male fashion legends from Andre Leon Talley to Joey Arias to Simon Doonan were there tonight. What did you talk to them about? Who else did you see or talk to?
Sadly, I couldn’t talk much at all what with the constant mouthfuls of tiny, conical hors d’oeuvres. I did see the “food & wine gay” from Queer Eye and a few Project Runway castoffs which is always fun. I also saw someone you falsely claimed was Fabio, though I’m pretty sure it was actually Mickey Rourke prepping for his next role as Fabio.
We had a spat over the black lace dresses and so here is your platform. Say. Why is the sheer shirt dress with black lace more________than the red necktie dresses that I was about to write a brilliant twitter about before you rudely interrupted my creative stream?
First, “brilliant Twitter” = oxymoron. (See: @iamdiddy, @aplusk & @kirstiealley) Second, said spat had less to do with the relevance of the sheer shirt dress (which was arguably more subversive ) then it did with your inability to fully convince me of the redneck’s genius. (Another oxymoron.) Anyway, full disclosure: I was really just pissed there were no more tiny, conical hors d’oeuvres left.
What famous actress do you think would catapult to the next level if she wore a Isabel Toledo dress? And in which dress?
Only 4 days ago my answer would have been Chastity Bono. See how fickle fashion is?! Definitely Natalie Portman in the “Convertible Lettuce Dress.” It’s gonna take layers and layers of sheer coral to make that one read “movie star”, you know?
Sometimes I think Isabel’s genius is taking tiny embellishment and blowing it up and out of proportion into a whole dress, for example the tiny wine colored satin mini dresses that are just a big ruffle or the pleated fabric dresses or even Michelle’s simple lime green coat. Like a path in a field…simple. What do you think about that idea? It’s not really about the body but instead a simple idea, overblown and exaggerated, that a woman’s self can interact with.
As evidenced by our aforementioned “redneck” spat, I think you’re absolutely correct: Women do have a tendency to take tiny embellishments and blow them all out of proportion.
Awwww, SNAP!
grrr, hmmmph, where’s that damn lawyer? Actually…I’m feelin’ a little PMS, a little way over the Stiller + Meara, Regis + Kelly banter on the Fashion Funster Mobster scene. Nonetheless, little marvin, I thank you for your astute culinary-infused, sartorially sassy, gender-biased and blithe commentary and let’s do it again next month, same time!
*little marvin is CEO/founder of little marvin/BIG MEDIA, a full-service media company that creates non-scripted programming, web/mobile media and branded entertainment. he is also a bit of a genius, and infamous for squiring some of the world’s most beautiful people. he didn’t write this.
although…he did tweet this…
@ Isabel Toledo opening party. Michelle’s inauguration dress + Andre Leon Talley in the same room? Gay buttons = officially pushed
follow lm’s twitter feed here.
the aforementioned Jade tweet:
What to wear for a Redneck function? Sheer black lace whispers like spanish windows n a red tie @ the neck??? almodovar suburban knish nicks
follow our twitter feed here.
Note: Twitter is no substitute for God, Career or a Beautiful, glittery evening celebrating venerable New York institutions such as FIT, the dedication of Original Talent and the Toledo style. See this show…there is more life and fashion and the fame game happening here than in any episode of Project Runway.
Wendy Goodman’s New York magazine coverage of Isabel and Ruben Toledo’s home in Habitually Chic
written by Jade Dressler and little marvin
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Filed under: ART, FASHION, LIVES, NEW YORK | 1 Comment
Tags: Amy Rosi, Andre leon Talley, Carmela Spinelli, cator sparks, Chastity Bono, David Blond, Dr. Valerie Steele, Eric Hagmueller, famous dress, famous NYC designers, fashion exhibit new york city, Fashion From The Inside Out, FIT exhibit Isabel Toledo, FIT fashion exhibit, FIT NYC Michelle Obama, FIT Toledo, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Isabel and Ruben Toledo's home, Isabel Toledo, jade dressler, Joey Arias, Kim Hastrieter, Little Marvin, Lori Sutherland, making it in New York City, Michelle and Barack, Michelle and Barack fashion, Michelle Obama dress designer, Michelle Obama dress exhibit, Michelle Obama fashion, Michelle Obama inauguration dress, Michelle's famous dress, Michelle's green dress, Natalie Portman, NYC Opera Divas Shop for Opera, Patricia Mears, Patrick McDonald, Phiippe Blond, red neck dress, Ruben Toledo, Ruben Toledo drawings, Simon Doonan, Speidi, Spydee, WSJ
Inspired by the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City we put together NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING CREDOS to consider when creating a brilliant interior. I am joined by Michelle Barge, my partner with a passion for classic decor, a solid Sotheby’s background, and endless examples of Living The Nnnth Degree Life! and together we suggest the ultimate rooms and accessories to surround the furniture that caught my attention and imagination at the show. Her mix of Niceness and Naughtiness is where boring ends… and we begin.
ONE: DO YOU. Classic advice, but applicable to EVERYTHING!
Here is Us: Me, Jade.
OK, so you can see the “Cute! Anything Goes Mentality” from this pic. My actual criteria? Furniture or Interiors are the same as people…I seek what inspires desire and honor of the highest qualities of a life well-lived, a sensibility or timelessness that penetrates strangely and whisks you away immediately to the Landscape of Dream or Hmm, To Be Explored Further. It sounds haute and mightily but really…in the end…spontaneous, free and simple is a huge part.
Now. Michelle.
As much as my Mother would like, I don’t wear earrings, I get pedicures but my fingernails are left bare, my standard pieces of jewelry are a stainless steel vintage Rolex and big hair does not look good on me. I crave refinement and elegance and often my dreams go to an afternoon lazed away at the sleak and swanky Connaught Hotel’s bar in London. But when I shed the black and am not drinking fabu wines in an English drawing room, the ocean is where I really feel at home. Surfing and horseback riding, flip-flops, no tweeting and cooking on an open fire on the shore — this is my true lover. The inspiration from this lifestyle fuels it all.
and now…here are our NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING CREDOS
TWO: THE HIPPO IN THE ROOM. ONE STELLAR UNAVOIDABLE PIECE OR EXTREME COLOR CAN MAKE A ROOM.
Jade:
From Boco do Lobo in Portugal (here it is again…unforgettable…) comes the above unavoidable, purple grape, ombre lacquer crystal-shaped credenza for which a double take is necessary. Thankfully not modern or design cred-saturated as sometimes ICFF offerings can be, it stood out in the show like an ungainly girl in a loud purple satin dress, an amusing heirloom piece that would be in a family for years and likely to be woven into its memories and imagination. The matte golden felt interior with asymetrical shelves continues the mystery like the wardrobe entry into Narnia.
Michelle:
If you really want to go for madness in color and actually live with it, I always turn to Jamie Drake’s madcap style — mix of extreme color but classic lines and arrangements. The words “afraid” are just not in his vocabulary.
Jade:
I spied another credenza from the same company, this time white lacquer with a silly and surreal but well-crafted mish-mash of drawers, pulls and interior drawer fabrics.
Michelle intones:
…And if one were to juxtaposition Sir Drake’s fuschia room with the purple Bilbao-esqed “storage unit” (let’s hope the cabinets are deep and it is actually functional) to a room belonging to our muse, Coco Chanel, she would have had this white lacquer cabinet as a complement snuck in a long hall way atopped with huge white camelias. See a very rich video of Ms. Coco’s apartment here with all her influences, lions, wheat for prosperity, crystal balls and chandeliers with number 5’s throughout. She Did Her. And if Ms. Coco wasn’t having it, Jacques Tati would have used this white credenza in one of his films.
THREE: INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER. BLUR THE LINES OF INSIDE AND OUT.
Jade:
Not everyone is considering designs for useful and perhaps mandatory objects for the home that may be commonplace again five years hence from now… and that is exactly what made these two pieces a stand-out. Best of show! I thought so and was pleased to know that Metropolis magazine did as well! These green-friendly garden necessary objects are from Canadian designers, Jenny Lemieux and Leo Corrales of The Hero Design Lab. (note: the site is very lemon-y) The rainwater collector, at a great price of $525., holds 45 gallons of water. The collector and the drying rack are recyclable, rust-proof aluminum powder coated and come in many colors.
Michelle! How ya like these curve balls?
Michelle:
I like, but I’ll take my greening up and uptown. What if every rooftop in NYC and major city were green? What joy, what breathable air, what wildlife. Talk about A Great Room.
FOUR: NO WALLFLOWERS! MAKE THE WALLS TALK!
Jade:
Talking walls may be five years down the road as well but for now it’s quite cool to contemplate custom designed glass floor and wall tiles and wall paper from Rollout Custom Wallpaper.
Clients have used images of themselves or patterns combining their own iconography or worked with the artisans at the company. Extending even to giftwrap paper, families can preppily brand themselves like Republics. This is Monogram-beyond, but I’m sure Michelle will find a historic example to inspire rather than repulse. Take the helm, Michelle!
Michelle:
Well, a front door wallpapered with a family monogram or stenciled initials with black trim could be quite chic — especially in an apartment building where you own the floor. WORD!
And for the modernist, I think the above example above, gold on white in a foyer or leading to a dining area is very smart, especially as it just looks geometric from afar.
And then, on the flip side, one can get one’s island on with tranquil but powerful wallpaper to create a personal retreat in a bathroom. Case in point:
FIVE: THE GOLD STANDARD… UNSTANDARD.
Goldfingers Twitter and flop into this Chair listening to Goldfrappe in The Bronze Age of Consent.
Jade:
Using gold or classic decor standards in unconventional ways always works. Tufted stuffed chairs are classic design speak but to do it up in metallic leather…hello! Back at the ICFF show, two lab coated dandies with clipboards and goggles presided over a Bond-esque booth at the show where this bronze leather chair rotated slowly and mesmerized me as I walked by. A futuristic seedpod, I can saw a whole intergalactic porn scene in this chair unfold in my little mind! Inxdesign designers, Christian Motta and Duane Dibartolomeo, told me that three upolsterers died while making this impossible custom chair. With the range of futuristic and the over the top offerings from these former film and TV costume and set designers at Inxdesign, one could make a whole lot of mischief within a classic room set-up.
Michelle? Will intergalactic porn work with my Scalamandre drapes?
Michelle counters:
Agree that the only place for a chair like this is a boudoir and given the choice of fabrics from Inxdesign, I would go for a mint green or pale pink silk tufted chaise as my film backdrop!
SIX: SIMPLE ALWAYS WORKS. The Tela-tubbie Scandilicious World of Ikea.
Jade:
After my own over-saturation from dramatic furnishings here on the blog…and as I finished my round at the show…the Island Of Ikea felt so simply smart, I didn’t know for five minutes that it was even Ikea! Repentant, puritan-simple strong design felt easy and comforting and I could picture classic pieces like this red chair punctuating a room as a respite from the boudoir activities next door.
Michelle:
Well, in this recession, this is a wise and prudent choice for Ikea. The Scans still own well-made, inexpensive and aesthetically non-combative home furnishings.
Jade:
SEVEN: STREW GLASS BOWLS OF GOODIES LAVISHLY AROUND.
Danish Toppers.
Jade:
I love shiny glass chandeliers, cut Baccarat, antique thrift or $5000 goblets from Murray Moss in cabinets and groupings of big and small glass bowls. This bowl has presence and personality and I could imagine it…well I couldn’t, I’ll let Michelle do that.
Michelle:
Oh, this bowl is filled with Meyer lemons in the summer or persimmons in the fall on a black matte slate counter-top or it becomes a mini-world of very proper goldfish — in a child-proof and feline-free home, of course.
EIGHT: PLAY WITH EIGHT SCALES OF TEXTURE… TO MAKE INTERIOR MUSIC.
Jade:
Ikea’s crown basket was inspired by Yule Crowns made in Scandia for the holidays. Put some metallic and glitter frosted 1950’s Christmas balls or coconuts or black feather boas in that crown basket, put on the Sinatra and make up some matching dirty martinis!
I found this old watercolor image of a room with intriguing black walls where the above action could unfold.
NINE: TO BE IN THE NINES…BE INSPIRED BY A PLACE OR TIME.
Jade:
Do try this at home!
Kenneth Cobonpue‘s furniture is found in luxury resorts all over the world, the kind of places where you sink into the furniture and wish you could bring it back with you to have it in your home.
Michelle:
A beach is only as thrilling as the rest of the locale and the room you can repair to after sunning all day. My ultimate room changes via locale. But the locale where the ultimate room will be — at least for today — is in Cadaques, Costa Brava, Spain.
And for you analytical, Type-A, list-makers…here are the Top NINE SELF-IMPORTANT SOUNDING DESIGN CREDOS for the Nnnnth Degree Life in one tidy list:
ONE: DO YOU. Classic advice, but applicable to EVERYTHING!
TWO: THE HIPPO IN THE ROOM. ONE STELLAR UNAVOIDABLE PIECE CAN MAKE A ROOM.
THREE: INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER. BLUR THE LINES OF INSIDE AND OUT.
FOUR: NO WALLFLOWERS! MAKE THE WALLS TALK!
FIVE: USE THE GOLD STANDARD… UNSTANDARD.
SIX: SIMPLE ALWAYS WORKS.
SEVEN: STREW GLASS BOWLS OF GOODIES LAVISHLY AROUND.
EIGHT: PLAY WITH EIGHT SCALES OF TEXTURE…TO MAKE INTERIOR MUSIC.
NINE: TO BE IN THE NINES…BE INSPIRED BY A PLACE OR TIME.
and I leave you with several of our favorite decor blogs: Peak of Chic, Habitually Chic…and The Selby.
+++
written by Jade Dressler and Michelle Barge
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Filed under: HOME, NEW YORK, STYLE, TRENDS | Closed
Tags: accent pieces home, accessories decor, armoire, bathroom decor ideas, beach cadaques, beach furniture, beach house, beach house decor, beach style, bedromm furniture, bedroom ideas, best beach furniture, best interior design ideas, Boco do Lobo, boudoir chaise, boudoir decor, Cadaques, Cadaques Costa Brava Spain, Cadaques style, chanel, Chanel interiors, Chanel's apartment, Chanel's home, city roof decor, coco chanel, Coco Chanel's home, Coco's home, color advice rooms, Connaught bar, Connaught Hotel, cool room designs, credenza, custom wallpaer, design ideas, dining room furniture, eco-friendly outdoor furniture, foyer decor ideas, foyer ideas, furniture home accessories, garden decor ideas, Goldfinger, green city roofs, green garden furniture, green interior design, green living, green roofs, green rooftops, ICFF, Ikea, Inxdesign, island decor, jade dressler, Jamie Drake, Jamie Drake color, Kenneth Cobonpue, living room furniture, London bar, Michelle Barge, Miss Chanel, MOss, New York City green, new york interiors, outdoor raincatchers, Parisian apartments, recycled garden furniture, Rollout Custom Wallpaper, rooftop furniture, room ideas, Scalamandre, simple chair, Spain coast, sustainable outdoor furniture ideas, table top, The Gold Standard, The Hero Design Lab, The Nnnth Degree, top 10 interior design ideas, top design ideas, top design rules, top interior design guidelines, top nine design ideas, wallpaper custom, wallpaper ideas
Your Blog is F@*%^&# Fabulous!
Five Favorites
Blogging is obsessive, egotistical, infanticidal and Oedipal. One is ever viligante and immersed, tied to the desk like a naughty lover. Then one day, you get the Bloggers’ Chain Letter and though faintly like the Plea from your Ugandan Uncle for Cash or the latest heaven-sent Money Angel…with this one you are forced to play the game in the name of links, audience share and blogger love.
So, Lucy Raubertas from Indieperfumes chose me as one of her favorite blogs and I am compelled to return the favor, shout out to her and name 5 blogs myself. And just for kicks, you are required to name 5 addictions too! Jesus, Omyugandancuzzin!, True Confessions! I will deposit el dinero ASAP and spring you from prison!
Digress. Back to Lucy. I do love her blog, this evocative image of Moroccan women harvesters of Argan oil from indieperfumes will give you the flavor. Let her take you softly and intelligently from the origins and history of scent to hand-crafted perfumes and small special shops selling scents n’ sensabilities, she is voraciously and sensuously into the meaning behind it all…comme moi.
Ancient texts from several cultures speak about the world beginning with a scent…and so, here begins a glimpse into my favorite blog worlds and my addiction to infinity. Strap yourself in…it’s a long ride.
MY TOP FIVE BLOGS OF THE MOMENT
HOME
The Selby does rich portraits of creative people in their homes, so one craves “lifestyle” vs. “material goods”…always a good thing. Above is Julia Restoin Roitfeld, daughter of the Carine Roitfeld of the Vogue magazine. Each person or couple gets a homey, crayoned questionaire at the end, like this one from model Erin Wesson. (Julia’s is not there, she must be busy)
I love Erin’s home for its islands of collaged images, her collections of odd animal heads, and her, for dancing recently to Augusto Pablo and believing there are aliens all around. Me too on all of the above.
BODY STYLE
This is Clean. This is Fashion on Warp Speed. Every image on JAK & JIL sends me. The format and the starkness make it my favorite fashion blog because it’s like a wake-up call. The way someone with Big Style can instantly wake you up when you spot them on the street or in a crowd. Attn: Boys and Girls, if you like shoes, you will be in heaven here.
SATURATED PASSION
She can be found in a little shaman bearclaw. She sings on the moors like a little goth rock Heathcliff lover. Goddess or Lady Lavona? The Lady’s blog, Cabinet of Curiosities is gorgeous and so rich to read. She is my Muse for Fusing my witchy, herb-loving and city blood self. The above image from Jennifer Tzar, the photographer who used an antique relic LIKE Lady Lavona’s Black Forest Relics in the shoot, is an example of the aesthetic of “new hipster hippie” that runs through her choices of art to music to coffins. (Attn: stylist friends…go for the Lady’s relics, she just added new ones!) Her coverage of the gold biodegradable coffin pod from Ecopod really sent me. Here is one of her magikal items, a Venus love nest of pink quartz for the heart. (I do love her talismans made from animal claws and teeth, more precious because she sells out all the time!)
CLOSET QUEENS
Globally and unGodly, girls are opening up their closets and blogging about it and it runs the gamut from painful to pretty. My favorite of all is the reigning two Queens of the News from The My Closet Genre… All hail Queen Michelle and Queen Marie from Kingdom of Style!
These two London girls make my day when they wax on about crafty indie designers (and make a point of following them repeatedly, which is really honorable), make things to wear and model them (see Queen Michelle above, she LOVES her leggings!) and basically can intrigue me on any topic from the mundane to sublime and I can’t even hear their sexy accents!
ART? OR MUSIC? OR VERYLIFE ITSELF?
For number 5 I’ve been agonizing for all of Sunday over which ART blog to share more intimately with everyone. It was a 3-way tie between my Great Loves, Circleculture, where the pink Jaybo Aka Monk image below comes from or who killed bambi, where the image by Miles Aldridge from the top of the blog came from or from a trip into the bizarre and tasty world of Wurzeltod.
The winner? i listen to everything by Diana Miller, a talent executive with Last Call with Carson Daly. This post already is so flush with art and the very specific and precious worlds of Circleculture, who killed bambi and wurzeltod are best discovered on one’s own without comment or illustration from me. Take a look when you have time. But, music, especially as covered in Diana’s blog, is pop-in-able any time and her presentation is a perfect osmosis of the artists’ lives and their music. The image is Lykke Li, who we covered last year in a summer music post by Felicia Chen.(yes, this is a bleg for Felicia to do a repeat;-)
ALL ABOUT ALTER ME.
And one last plug. It may be true. I or someone I know is an extra-terrestial stuck in the body of a stripper named Chelsea Nicole and she blogs here…iti phone home about celebrities, boobs and chakras.
AND NOW, MY TOP FIVE ADDICTIVE MOMENTS…
Addictions, I have seen all kinds. I thankfully do not have that kind of personality. I am only addicted to finding the orgasmic in every moment so I claim that that addiction qualifies.
I am obsessed with the idea of obliterating the Binary Code of the brain and Emotions which I have found immediately results in INFINITY, So, no holds barred, here five moments in my life where my addiction to infinity occurred and technically will never stop occurring…(oooh, fractal headache here)
THE RED CIRCLE.
A dare from the neighborhood kids to draw a perfect circle on demand. Ha! I knew I could do this and distinctly remember calling upon all the forces of nature, Famous Artists Gone-By and The Grand Creator Itself…and I drew a perfect circle…to be echoed in the open mouths of babes surrounding me. That moment of bravado, summoning The Force and total audience share qualifies as my first Addictive Infinite High.
THE ROCK.
Ripple effects. Knowing this at age 11. Just me, legs tucked up on a huge rock in the country and imagining and feeling a world of contentment as I became the hissing of the grass in front of me and the breathless rising and falling of the golden insects in the sun together like a volume graph of a song. I did feel my whole life perfect in that moment and can get there anytime.
THE BICYCLE.
Riding my bike, in a trance from the sound and feel of the wheels ( thank you Chad Landenberger for this perfect image) and looking up suddenly to a low brick wall (my favorite wall to perch on and contemplate the world) coming up on the left side of the path. Deciding that the measurement of time to get there was Infinity and it was this: 8 and so I decided to stop time at that moment…and slo-mo’d my way to the wall. In fact I am still there on that bike.
JOSEPH AND HIS COAT OF MANY COLORS.
A magic man from Portugal that I fell immediately in love with to Bowie’s song “Let’s Dance”, you know the one about the red shoes and yes, I was wearing them, he pulled me to dance and I was done from that moment on. Full of art, drama and mystical coincidences that convinced me Time Had Stopped, we followed each other to Europe and for years we lived in that world between dreamscape and “actuality.” This image from Mario Testino encapsulates for me one “Infinite Moment” and the whole experience of crossing paths with this man.
THE CAR CRASH.
Years later I was driving on a country road, through an allee, having just fought again with my boyfriend of 8 years and considering that this maybe “the end of the road”, a highway child, cast out into the world…
The last thing I remember was the techno music, the brilliant summer light blinking through the trees…
…and then the huge pink air balloon obliterating my world. Near Death? I did die, in fact, and hovered for while in that still moment of choice to re-enter this world and clean up the mess.
I emerged with only a scratch, no one was hurt in a total miracle and I felt no impact or heard anything. This convinced me instantly of the parallel infinite world that rides bigger in the temporary scaffolding of our soap opera days.
The crossroads where our God Perfection Meets Our Corporal Messy Emotions and Obsessions is honestly my addiction. On the serious and humorous side, it makes for great art. The structure and crashing of our technological and linear apparatus with our squishy biological bodies is the fascination of us all to differing degrees.
In this one climaxing incident was joined one of my favorite songs,”Warm Leatherette” from Grace Jones, books such as “Crash”, from J.G. Ballard, and the movie of the same name by David Cronenberg, Tarantino’s Grindhouse and the lurid fascination of Andy Warhol employed as a police crash scenes photographer. The American dream cut short on the highway…and very likely a new and better DREAM to emerge.
How to bi-furcate the binary coding in our emotionally fueled brains and reach infinity? Of course this is how fractals, the pattern of infinity, are made. This flickering of on and off is the stuff our phenomenal worlds are made of according to physics. The films of our lives are the running of sequential images of our desires.
“Flux and flurry,Stillness and hypermovement in animated worlds”, by Esther Leslie in the Radical Philosophy magazine sums this up neatly and scholarly.
A blog is thus… a form of animated cartoon. Those decrying the death crash of journalism via the hand of blogs, Facebook posts and tweets will remain moribund while the flash of imagination of the readers gains speed and illumination through new faster cinematic forms.
As Leslie points out, a snow globe is our world, still or animated by the touch of our thoughts.
…and this pic…is me, a dreaming blogger, FINALLY finished my “Chain letter, Addiction Blog Post” for now…progress…I think I found meaning….(as the yogis say, “not this, not that”)… a thousand points of light and ephemeral snowthingies …feeling much better than when we began! (thank you blogging pen pals…and Lolita for this image and btw she has an amazing blog you should see…
written by Jade Dressler
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Filed under: ART, FASHION, LIVES, STYLE | Closed
Tags: Andy Warhol, Argan oil, best art blogs, best blogs, best shoes, best shoes in Paris, best style blogs, Black Forest Relics, blogger, Cabinet of Curiousities, car crash, carine roitfeld, chad landenberger, circleculture, coat of many colors, crash the movie, David Cronenberg, diana miller, erin wesson, Esther Leslie, favorite blogs, gold coffin from Ecopod, i listen to everything, images of lovers, indieperfumes, infinity, J. G Ballard, Jack and Jill, jade dressler, jak&jil, Jennifer Tzar, julia restoin roitfeld, kingdomof style, Lady Lavona, lolita, lolita blog, london style, love charms, love talisman, LOVERS, lovers images, lovers photo, Lykke Li, mario testino, nature talisman, Paris street style, PARIS Style, photo of lovers, Radical philosophy, summer music, talismans, the hottest shoes, the selby, top five blogs, top ten blogs, Venus love nest, warm leatherette, who killed bambi, wurzeltod
