NOVEMBER 2016
Pocahontas, an American princess Stands for Standing Rock
above + below,
an American Saguaro cacti holding Immortal Beloved perfume.
WAIT…THE ONLY NEWS IN NOVEMBER WAS THE ELECTION! WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH
T. H. A. T…?
This week, just after I spent some time in the heart of the American West, specifically the state of Arizona, the US took a prickly turn with the presidential election. Sad and angry emotions, tense relations, protectionism, were everywhere in the air. Everyone wondering how did this happen?
Cacti clearly tell you they hurt.
Cacti told me much about an approach to these times. To approach these sacred succulents, you must center yourself with heightened sensitivity and respect. Like warriors, or even bullies, they store their sustenance, their watery emotions and life essence in a harsh, desert environment and protect themselves in strong form with both strength and beauty, their starry spines and flowers offered, like a rose. Or perhaps a bouquet of pineapple-like lady flowers, as below.
EL ELECTION: I suppose I am a bit cacti-human. Like Pocahontas, I am a free spirit who has journeyed far in this lifetime to be centered in my heart and in this I trust. I trust our country and the good will of its humans, even when they express as bullies and with un-kind speech. At least it’s out. The better to hear is the better to heal. Even while we know there is painful history impacting us all, all is not well in our country. Last summer was truly painful in terms of terrorism, here at home on our city streets, places of worship and fun…and abroad.
Thorns, like old wounds, like angry swords of old, outdated rhetoric, poke us into where freedom truly lives…that in-between peaceful, powerful place the masters speak of. Between duality of party, race, gender, circumstance, heaven and earth. That is Immortal, that which is beloved. Wake up, life is a party we create together! Come together people, now, smile on your brother, everybody come together, try to love one another right now. (I am Love-Child of the 70’s, yup.)
THUS, MY JOURNEY QUEST TO PLACE OUR IMMORTAL BELOVED GODDESS PERFUME NESTLED IN
THE HEART OF A TALL SAGUARO CACTUS.
Yep, yup, I’m that kind of girl.
PRO-CHOICE: ALIGN WITH AN ELECTION OF ELATION: Just as in the legend of Pocahontas, questing towards acts of LOVE, council, community, and healing are the work of what is immortal and of the highest. No matter who “leads,” leading our own thoughts, words, and actions with LOVE is the only solution.
My recent work drawing 12 goddesses and a crusading traveler’s quest after a precise image reminded me to stay focused on my ideals all the while being aware of thorns, as I traveled to Arizona ( Cacti! Native Americans! UFO’s! ) to root down and launch our project, “The World’s First Goddess Perfume + Coloring Book.” Twelve illustrated goddesses from around the world, a film, and travel plans, all to morph me into the “Anthony Bourdain” of beauty, fashion, and design explores! Here is the coloring book cover with its aura of little, mysterious, gold filigree light bulbs, UFOs, aka perfume bottles. Tune in, turn on to learn more! 
THE PROJECT: I got the CALL earlier this year by the much admired former CEO and his wife, colleagues from a clothing company I worked for, and together designed retail stores from NYC to Santa Fe, almost 20 years ago, as they asked me to help them build a pop-up shop for The University of Arizona Museum of Art‘s Head to Toe Gala Benefit. Numerous calls, drawings, and laughs soon evolved into a request to moderate the fashion show and exhibit and before I knew it, my bags were packed and ready to fly to Arizona.
Who will let the cat in the bag?
This little press bit published before my arrival in Tucson Life magazine:
Even the clouds flying over the country westward-ho! from NYC were kind of whipped up either like tornado or a fashion model, arising from a goddess-circle dance below, take your pick. No peyote-induced vision here, just my every day ecstasy.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS GODDESS PERFUME + COLORING BOOK
When my friend, Master Perfumer, Maria McElroy (pictured, below r.)and her co-perfumer, filmmaker and Metropolitan Museum of Art lecturer, Alexis Karl, (l.) who create together as Brooklyn’s House of Cherry Bomb, an indie-perfume house, decided to re-launch Immortal Beloved, my favorite perfume of theirs, I (m.) suggested a collaboration. I already had begun a series of goddess portraits, and when the Museum special guest appearance and pop-up shop exhibition came into being, it seemed the perfect place for the first public preview appearance of “The World’s First Goddess Perfume + Coloring Book” project for early 2017.
WHO IS…?
We created Immortal Beloved, the World’s First Goddess Perfume + Coloring Book as wearable and experiential art to inspire, “to resonate through time via the twelve illustrated goddesses from around the globe, as well as reflect the light and dark of this mortal coil, the marvelous complexity of our sensual beings,” says Alexis. Speaking of mortal coils, this sultry snake image, below, is from the short film she made for the project.
See some more of the groovy gals we call immortal!
It’s so apt to launch Immortal Beloved in the American West. While the perfume is meant to evoke all 12 goddesses, the first goddess is Pocahontas, representing all Native Americans of this land, via her story as the daughter of a chief and a peace-making intermediary between tribes and people.
Flying out over the heart of America and then being out West, is always re-orienting. The slow expanse of mountains and sky vistas, and the quiet time on the plane between coasts, this always transforms me. The jewel-like museum, the cool-so-American campus, and most of all, the creative and passionate people I met were the best gifts.
MORE ON THE MUSEUM
An art-filled campus where creative kids college in the warmth and sun. How much did I long to be in my 20’s again! I saw fencing classes outside, critical thinking classes inside the art museum…and yes, actual stylish, hip guys in the coffee shop distracting me from my hummus-pita thing and my docent lunch companions.
The art museum was founded in the 1920’s and is noted for 25 Renaissance masterworks from Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain, this man below is from that series.
MORE The museum also reveals grand art finds like Rothko, Lichtenstein, Hopper, O’Keeffe, and so many other masters, all somehow more precious in the intimate spaces of a small, exquisitely curated museum.
A detail below of more desert flora and fauna I became a bit obsessed with.
Salamanders and chameleons. Harbingers of change and transformation. My quest to connect with the other mysterious desert-dweller, the Sagauro cacti deepened, especially when I learned that it takes 75-100 years for them to grow an arm. Like erect, silent witnesses, (ok, yup, phallic symbols) they stand erect as homes for birds, food for bats and scratching posts for the Javelinas, those crazy, cute,smelly, wild pigs of Arizona sniffing around in giggling packs.
MY HOSTS: EX-NEW YORKERS IN TUCSON
How adorable are these two? Forty-plus years together, still enthusiastically enjoying art together as docents for the museum, and still enjoying a creative, intellectual banter. I could not have been more taken care of by Fleurette Wallach, who astounds with her knowledge of names and places in the art world, and Marc Wallach‘s financial, business smarts combined with his warm heart is a precious combo. Their home was just beautiful, a haven to the libertine life, filled with art and antiques, in a palette of 1950’s colors I am partial to. Take a look, as I try to sum it up in 3 images:
Besides Fleurette placing the two geisha dolls above, which match the ones I had in my childhood bedroom on a shelf just as high, Marc is from Vienna, Austria as is my father’s side of the family. Therefore they are my adopted parents, yes? Of course.
We pulled together the pop-up shop in three days, rehearsed the fashion show and lunched with mountains and lovely souls.
Other animals roamed wild, such as these flamingos I caught on film. I love how their little boat echoes the clouds above.
THE GALA EVENING
“Art awakens a spirit of creativity in everyone; it enriches our lives and provides a bridge between part, present, and future.”
W. James Burns, Director of UAMA
We three moderators of the show decided to rep past, present, and future ~ and had a blast! On the left, Debi Chess Mabie, the Executive Director of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, whose commentary spoke of the present, given her knowledge of the many presenting artists; in the middle, repping the past as famed Hollywood costumer, Edith Head, was impersonator, Susan Claassen; and me, on the right, repping NYC, etc. as the futurist. This picture makes me laugh, if you know me, you’ll get it.
This show wasn’t trying to be the runways of New York, Paris or Milan, this was community celebrating its artists at the intersection of wearable art. This image from rehearsal with dance students as the perfect models of natural beauty, speaks to me of the Timeless Reverence for Beauty, as much the all-out runway show splendor of a couture house does. Go on and Vogue, kids.
On a serious joyful note, I spoke of what I saw on the runway and the symbolism of clothing, the return to goddess beauty, and the future of slow luxury as a grounding, non-digital force. Numerous people from the audience came to tell me that they really appreciated my “honesty, beauty of mystery, wisdom, notes of sophistication and humor.” I share this to say that I was humbled by the gratitude and expression of these shared sentiments. Art does heal.
There were 9 acts, the runway models were dance students choreographed by Michael Williams of the UA School of Dance. A dancer below sports futuristic head sculptures from Merve Oztemel, an artist from Istanbul I have discovered and premiered here at the show.
Here below are two of her major, futuristic, animalistic, laser-fluid headdresses.
I love the bone quality of these, reminding me of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. This one was live and direct upstairs from the show:
The show was held in a large gallery in which an exhibition of Michael Haykin, called Fifteen Indelible Lives, was hung. Called a “breathtaking body of atmospheric realist paintings,” the works are based on moments, it was the kind of O’Keeffe-eye Mother Nature truly needs right now.
AND THE SHOP?
Just a couple of images to encapsulate. Note: Photographers in Arizona just work a wee bit slower than the next-day Patrick McMullan/Getty Images delivery we so love here in NYC! That means I took these pics dashing between set-up and being on stage. So, until I have my personal paparazzi, please just ignore the cords, price tags, and un-styled images, etc. Thanks! Hey, Patrick maybe you need a Tucson agency!
The shop was anchored by a red wall of paintings and scarves made from them to underscore the art-to-wear aspect. We hung them high and salon style for impact.
Feature walls showcased the range of work and the theme of head to toe.
For our feature Immortal Beloved wall I replicated my studio wall with four framed goddess illustrations, along with my sketches-in-process and inspirations for the exhibit. Materials for people to add notes in journals and to add to the wall were part of the interactive, site-specific invite to get one’s creative fun on.
AND WHAT ABOUT THAT PERFUME, YOU ASK.
“Immortal Beloved is a reincarnation itself. Where did it begin and where will it end? The point is irrelevant,” says Alexis. “The scent of Immortal Beloved is always NOW.”
Maria adds, “Immortal Beloved is an all-natural fragrance that entwines the mystery of dark, vintage ouds and million year old amber resins, with that of stunning Moroccan henna flower, drops of precious beeswax absolute, and tobacco flower. A shadow of ambergris, labdanum, and chypre are touched with traces of delicate lily of the valley and Madagascar vanilla.”
“Immortal Beloved is sensual and complex, an olfactory story of Gods and Goddesses, beauty, power, and love eternal,” says Alexis. “We have envisioned the fragrance of immortality by using rare and precious elements from nature.”
MORE ON THE GODDESSES PLEASE! AND WHY A COLORING BOOK?
“The future of Virtual Reality holds more than 1 million ways to play beyond Pokemon and gadgets,” says futurist Jade Dressler. “When art or an object is made, it is a meditation taking one beyond the galaxies plural.”
As you know, adult coloring books are a hot-of-the-moment meditative practice, a currently in vogue in response to over-digital stimulation. The Slow Luxury of coloring echoes the timeless tracing of ancient mandalas, yantras, and sand paintings for balance and connection. The Immortal Beloved coloring book features 12 goddesses representing 9 sacred geographic areas of the world, each evoking the myth, fairy tales, and legends of sacred traditions.
They, and you, giggle through these belongings, desires, and female expressions. Twelve in all, they represent the chakras/energy centers of our own bodies, our own earth, and layers of artful connections to the great Bee-yond.
(And that’s something Bee-yond even Bee-yonce.)
Goddesses of the Earth
1 POCAHONTAS OF NATIVE AMERICA
2 PINGA OF THE INUIT NORTH
3 ABUNDANTIA OF ITALY and LA SIRENA OF SPAIN
Girls of the DreamTime
4 SARASWATI OF INDIA + THE AUSTRALIAN DREAMTIME
5 KWAN YIN OF THE ORIENT
6 QUEZALCOATL IXCHEL OF THE MAYA
Galaxy Gals
7 SHEELA OF THE CELTS and FREYA OF THE NORTH
8 MAMA AFRICA and CLEOPATRA QUEEN OF EGYPT
9 BLACK ATHENA TARA OF RUSSIA
The full coloring book will go on sale in early 2017 and as a “Goddess Tease,” the first four prints are now on sale here.
WHERE TO NEXT, GIRLS? WE TRAVEL THE EPIC ROAD.
The Immortal Beloved project is part of our Slow Luxury ventures and will extend to journeys, inviting travelers to make and explore the worlds of perfume, clothing and design sourced in these 9 global destinations by working with local resources and traders. Many destinations will follow The Silk Road, through our Slow Luxury platform in partnership with Epic Road, the transformative travel company, which has been awarded Travel + Leisure‘s A-List designation since 2015 as a Top Travel Specialist. The first trip will be Marrakech in 2017, read more here.
AND MORE UNCANNY ABOUT ARIZONA.
I posted this image from my favorite book on my last post. Who would guess that a host of the event, is a friend of the photographer, Dan Budnik, and also painted a portrait of one of the women?
“Here is a painting I did of the moods of Virginia Deal, Master Weaver and elder a month before she died, ” shared Moira Geoffrion, an artist, arts professor, and a principle of the Head to Toe event, who saw this image on my blog!
Brunch at Moria and her husband Charles Geoffrion‘s house the next morning after the event, looks like this.
In Moria’s studio, her animal paintings.
I love this being above.
Upon entering their expansive home filled to the brim with art from all over the world, I focused in on simple yellow roses in a bowl and mentioned how yellow flowers are always a sign for me that my Dad is around. “Funny,” said Moira’s daughter, “this specific way of arranging flowers comes from my grandmother and is a tradition around here.” Ancestors are always around out West.
Charles on coffee duty. Cinnamon on dog duty.
The gardens outside.
I could putter, pool, and leap around here all day.
The Good Life.
Behold, I finally met my Saguaro.
And goal! I was able to pop the precious perfume bottle of Immortal Beloved in the heart of a Saguaro. I know I look like I trekked through the desert, trials, tribulations, and too many pita pockets to get here.
Moira’s husband took this picture insisting he was a stringer for the Associated Press. Thankfully he told me that, it convinced me to actually love that he allowed the shadow of the cacti on my face as the personality of the tree limbs shadow the whole garden, intrinsic to its beauty! I actually like the halfway-house look on my face, it’s very West/South Frida Kahlo-esque.
HEAVY METAL IN ARIZONA
On the way to the airport homeward-bound the day before the ELECTION, I became absorbed in capturing metal on the highway. Was it the upcoming election, a cutting sharp end of my stay? A contrast to so much visual stimulation, fine art, and people? Perhaps. It was a kind of meditation and I do love the spare, clean, strong quality here in each of these. Plus, there are some odd cloud happenings of note! OK, perhaps they are scratches on the window getting blurred, let’s agree that REALITY is a construct of choice, eh? (ELECTION)
Above, an “A” for Arizona, perfectly matched to the mountain, a classic triangle, a symbol of the goddess with feet rooted, head pointing upwards. And wow, look at these 3 triangle clouds in the photo below with 3 birds.
OK! What is up with the cloud? Is it a UFO bird? I love being out West.
Look at these sky happenings:
Look at this metal bird.
And thank you cacti.
And heart land of America.
In hopes that my work has given some beauty back to the world and we fight harder than ever to honor this land.
Flying over NYC at sunset, such a fitting culmination of my latest venture out West.
And…a green orb friend.
Back in NYC, where immortal beloveds like these 3 wise women were holding court after voting at my polling place the next day.
This coming together in diversity is our City.
I LOVE that LOVE notes on a wall at Union Square echo our own LOVE Notes Happening above ground there in 2009,
read more about that here.
So grateful for goddesses, cacti, and perfume. Get some here:
TO PURCHASE THE GODDESS PERFUME + COLORING BOOK
Immortal Beloved has incarnated in several versions, from an atomizer to a gift set, with the Perfume and Coloring Book Gift Set available now for pre-sale orders, shipping early 2017.
Hello! The Atomizer and Perfume are AVAILABLE + SHIPPING NOW!
- Perfume $150.
1/3 oz (10 ml) oil based perfume in a hand blown, gold filigree, Czechoslovakian glass bottle.
- Atomizer $50.
1/3 oz (10 ml) EDP in a red metal purse atomizer.
1/3 oz (10 ml) oil based perfume in a hand blown, gold filigree, Czechoslovakian glass bottle and 1/3 oz (10 ml) EDP in a red metal purse atomizer, plus the Immortal Beloved Coloring Book.
PRINTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE GET-ABLE NOW!
Illustrations of the first four EARTH Goddesses are available as giclee prints, available now online by clicking here in the Immortal Beloved Collection in the Jade Dress Shop. The prints come in two sizes: 8” X 10” at $75. and 11” X 14″ at $150.
Drumroll, here is the roll call for the first gals:
The Beautiful Cover in Full-Color
In honor of Arizona, the West, UFO’s, and the libertine life, I’ll leave you with some psychodelica music.
Til next we meet my friends, just be GOOD. It’s just that EASY. xoxo Jade
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Filed under: ART, CREATE, EARTH, FASHION, FILM, GODDESSES, MAGICAL BEINGS, NEW YORK, TRAVEL, TRENDS, WOMEN | Closed
Tags: Abundantia, Alexis Karl, American West, Arizona, benefit, Black Athena, cacti, Celts, charity, Cleopatra, coloring book, Dan Budnik, Debi Chess Mabie, dreamtime, Edith Head, Epic Road, fashion show, Fleurette Wallach, Freya, goddess, Head to Toe, illustration, Immortal Beloved, Ixchel, jade dressler, Kwan Yin, Mama Africa, Marc Wallach, Maria McElroy, Marrakech, Maya, Merve Oztemel, Michael Haykin, Michael Williams, Moira Geoffrion, Moria Geoffrion, Pinga, Pocahontas, pop up shop, Quezalcoatl, Sacred Space, Saguaro, Saraswati, Sheela, Slow Luxury, Susan Claassen, Tara, The World's First Goddess Perfume + Coloring Book, Tucson Life, UA School of Dance, UAMA, University of Arizona Museum of Art, W. James Burns
NYC: Last night in the black and white of dusk, sipping rose at Bar Pleiades’ sidewalk cafe, a smoking hot, elder Frenchman came snapping around the corner in a blinding light like a comet, his loud, phantasmagoric red sneakers blaring first…
He suddenly commanded all he surveyed, made everyone at the cafe heat up with inner hormones howling, before whippin’ his kicks into the dark, cool, hip depths of The Surrey Hotel.
“Ah, yes, another easy, sexy summer begins!”
So we all thought.
***
Dear Friends,
In contrast to that confident and cool Frenchman seen earlier this summer, a steady parade of loud, fearful human egos, trials to justice, and horrific tragedies has followed, marking the summer of 2016, very hot, only in part due to climate change.
Rocked our foundations. While we usually spot trends on this blog, this month we are choosing to explore those that elicit pleasure, champion healing, sweetness, teasing silliness, and humanity.
Which are really the only trends worth spotting!
xo Jade
In the throes of the worst of times, love, peace and healing may seem a distant, glittering memory, and yet it is so true that wounds beget healing.
We ask ourselves how to mine the riches of the underground, stand up again, affirm love, individual identity, beautiful diversity in ourselves and give back to the world the love and healing it is aching for right now?
We are at the center of a crossroads. Astronomy’s summer discovery of an ‘X’ at the exact middle of our Milky Way galaxy echoes that steadfast soulful choice we all must make.
“The opposite of love is not hate – it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death – it’s indifference.”
Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Holocaust survivor and author of Night, passed this July.
If like me, all the violent events of the early summer have you spinning around wondering where to step next, how to make a difference, how to heal…follow me to the high and the wild road…where we care deeply for the beauty of ourselves, others and this finite planet.
Once upon a summer morning, on the way to the beach, I chanced upon this little house:
See that book on the bottom left? Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. is an old favorite, my kind of classic beach read. Delighted and thankful, I took the book.
The book reminded me of humanity’s balance of beauty and beast; caring for life via womanly…and yes wolf-like…ancient, healing medicine, a perfect balm for these times. Am I surprised that Kanye’s Wolves video just launched at the same time plus Bill Maher’s cheer for Hillary Clinton as “a wolf with bits of Grandma in her teeth?”
Nope. Never surprised by being in sync.
Myth-inspired, wise quote balloons from Clarissa Pinkola Estés are sprinkled within, plus wisdom of “the wolves” quotes…perhaps not Kanye style, but a salve for events of late.
Dancing in red shoes and flower garlands affirm love and healing, so trip with me from summer’s Beachy Tidal Pools to Tidal Streaming; to Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist; from Get to Know Yer Wild Flowers that I’ve seen popping up in fields, streams, and city streets; to following my tried and true healing path, an ancient |modern | timeless fractal trail map called Tracing The 9 Stars, as a system to link our 9 chakras of innate sense, with spaces and places underfoot and beyond.
Note to Self: Heal Thyself Hints are also scattered within, because there are still SO MANY MORE places where LOVE reigns, where people choose to dance, to love, to offer kindness, to work hard…let’s go there.
xoxoxo
EARTH YOUR 1ST CHAKRA. TAKE A STAND AND STAND BY ME.
“Stay in your sneakers!” said the beautiful mother of my beautiful friend Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin. Perfect advice to belong to that club where you are most authentically YOU. That is your gift to the world.
This summer that sneaker to stay and stand in seems to be red.
Red foundations empower passion and life. Red sneakers are Everywhere rooting, affirming basic stands, re-rooting first chakra ideas. From that French gent I drew earlier commanding NYC with his red kicks to #BlackLivesMatter activist Deray McKesson documenting the front lines in red Nikes. We all get that its time to be WOKE. The fairy tale of the red shoes tells what happens to a soul when their original creationing becomes attractive to conditioning…and the original passion gets buttoned up or goes to sleep. The fire builds, finds other streams of expression.
Are we surprised that the red warrior planet, Mars, was retrograde with its aspects (power, action, anger, war, aggression) in review, from April 18 to June 29 this year? Our inner warriors are orbiting direct now, and we integrate all that has opened our wounds for healing.
Grab yer red shoe, grab your pleasure, …
Heal Thyself Hints: We are loving more red, passionate statements: outre red sparkle socks with black maribou slipper heels, both so bad, but together soooo good!…designer, Grace Lant’s luxury take on good ole’ boys athletic wear below, giving gals a soft, safe cocoon of soft greys with sporty red ambition…her collab with Underground, the authentic British sub-culture inspired shoemakers will give you some classic kick-a__.
Get to Know Yer Wild Flower, Why Dance? We Came to Dance! is a brilliant video by DJ, Tasha Blank here below to inspire THAT kind of free dance healing. Show up at one of her Get Down dances this summer! Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 1 is a 90’s revisit, Sneaker Pimps, Underground, of course.
“Wolves never look so funny than when they have lost the scent and scrabble to find it again…they look as if they’ve lost their wits. But they are really doing is picking up all the clues they can find.”
DREAM. STAY WOKE IN 2ND CHAKRA BLISS, SLEEP WITH THE BEST.
Walk in their shoes, sleep in their bed. This summer I slumbered in the same savvy, Savoir Beds from the Savoy Hotel in London as do/does/did Queen Elizabeth; Sir Winston Churchill; Marilyn Monroe; Chelsea Handler and ex-boyfriend Andre Balaz; plus Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, (owners-of and rompers-in 6 Savoir beds!)
In fairy tales, royal mythical beings preferred hand-made beds lest they lose sleep over a tiny irritating pea felt under a thin mattress. You can see from this picture that Savoir Beds do not spare the sustainably-harvested horse hair from South America, just one layer among many. Their one factory looks more like an artist’s lair oh-so-carefully crafting mattresses for 100 years. PS: they have a heavenly scent, stoking the desires and comforting the contrasting fears of the second chakra. PPS: Dream on perfection.
Appropriately evoking heaven,“Away in the Manger” was sung as a bedtime lullaby by my friend Rio Hamilton as I laid my bones on the famous trellis-ticking covered with little leather rosette beds in Savoir’s Soho showroom. The sensation was immediate! It was as though the bed rose up to meet and greet my body, hold me up vs. the heavy sink. Clearly this is the way to spend half of one’s life!
The Savoy’s distinction of installing the first elevators in a hotel, along with the first electric lights, begot the world’s first luxury suites, all penthouse-like at upper levels due to the ability to elevate discreetly, versus climb stairs like the common folk had to do. Upstairs, Downstairs.
How to go high when others go low as Michelle Obama said? Appropriate to the times, sexy 2nd chakra frolics in bed, and our gender-blends, follow this “tidal tale” of the C. Fornicata shell I discovered this summer on the beach…
the tides bring in slipper shell aka C. Fornicata, in shades from white to pink to browns, wave by wave…
Slippers of late are considered an invasive species, not really because they fornicate and replicate a lot, which they do, (and there are attempts to harvest and market the snail as a culinary pleasure in France, so expect to see these on your plate one day)…actually the “fornicate” name tag stems from their “sexing” in the ocean where they stack up like spiraling fractals.
Science says: “individuals are often found heaped up and fastened together, with the larger, older females below and the smaller, younger males on top. As a heap grows, the males turn into females (making them sequential hermaphrodites).”
I like to think this wild behavior is symbolic for the wisdom of elder, wise women that are at the core of our humanity. The voices of mothers are ancient, existing in every woman and man. We’d be so lucky to rise, to ascend to their grace, composure and activism of the heart…They Walk the High Road.
“Among wolves, when a wolf mother nurses her pups, she and they spend much time lazing about. Everyone slumps over everyone else in a great puppy pile; the outer world and the world of challenges are far away.
However, when the wolf mother finally trains the pups to hunt and forage, she shows them her teeth more often than not, she snaps and demands they keep up, she shoves them down if they don’t do what she requires.”
“Unlike humans, wolves do not deem the ups and downs of life, energy, power, food, opportunity as startling or punitive. The peaks and valleys just are, and wolves ride them as efficiently, as fluidly, as possible.”
Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 2: Lovebreak…All I wanna do is LOVE U…
SMART MAP THE CENTER, MIX WELL IN THE GOLDEN 3rd CHAKRA.
Above is science’s latest map of our brain…golden and glowing. As Cee-Lo sings in another 3-way symbiotica, “If I ever wanted to understand you, I’d have to ask somebody else.”
And ‘happiness isn’t all in our heads,’ as my friends, Dr. Vincent Pedre and Max Lugavere tell Yahoo! To know ourselves deeper, it’s not our head’s pretty flower brain revealing how we are wired, it’s our ‘second brain,’ our gut’s microbiome, right at our golden, third chakra, energetic center…with more stars than the Milky Way pumping out more seratonin than the brain! Like a steering wheel, navigating the two sides of our brains, our center 3rd chakra, via our gut feelings, is our call of the wild, valuing innate intuition.
Heal Thyself Hint + Summer Playlist 3: Click here for H.U.V.A. Network‘s Cobalt, a get-your-theta-state-on-song sowing a range of range between 4-7 HZ, to dance in sync with your universal mix master…and the latest Brainpickings, happily as usual in depth on Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time, a book mapping the riddle and logical tick-tock of Time, placing it with perception, intuition and consciousness. More steps towards the ownership of our lives.
To gather, re-weave, and to sow, is to replicate and map life’s processes. To take a thread and create a cloth. To puncture and arise to replicate a flower. To be lost in the trance rhythym of ins and outs and find a float in the brain’s theta state.
Purrrr, so sew, so slow…the luxurious hot trend of making “fem-art.”
Peep the corner of Broome, between Mercer and Greene streets in NYC….pairs of women, singular men, mothers and daughters from Kansas, all make a fast beeline, dodging traffic, to get to their Mecca, Purl Soho, seemingly a tiny and meek needlecraft supply shop. A kind of Creative Castle to Handcrafting, Purl Soho is where new brainmappers and digitalweavers can hunt and gather yarns, fabrics, threads, and notions for any imaginable quilting, patchwork, needlepoint, embroidery and weaving Wo-Manifesto.
Heal Thyself Hint: Sew Something Slow. Hand sewing for me has always been Peace. From Barbie clothes to my alternative digital habit today.
For Holiday 2016, I am launching my collection of Organically-Grown + Human-Sewn Couture Tease shirts with sounds of healing like Ahh!, OOO, and WOW appliqued upon the bod. See here on my muse and bestie, little marvin, strolling in Monaco, read more about the collection here.
The name of the collection is called Couture Tease and here is me teasing Paris.
Get to Know Yer Wild Flower: Meet Queen Anne’s Lace. We hail this fairy feminine flower here, aka the wild carrot. Echo’ing the spider that taught us all how to sow + weave;-)
TRIP THE LIGHT OF AN EXPANDED HEART, ROCK YER 4TH CHAKRA.
Before we go forth into fourth chakra territory, related to travel and helpful people in Feng Shui Land, let’s learn how to find and use some feminism in our homes hilariously in this video, “How To Be a Woman!” with Caitlyn Moran, UK author (OMG, this Esquire UK piece!) and star of Raised by Wolves, just coming to the States this month.
Strap-in now…from the local bus stop to the Pokémon place where digital meets the road, the earth’s sacred sites to space travel, here we go!
Next, meet my new friend, Celine Semaan Vernon, creator of Slow Factory, whose scarves go massive via NASA space travel and personal with her own Middle Eastern family’s history as refugees, a light on the current Syrian refugees seeking home.
Look up for Slow Factory’s scarves! One gianter transport step beyond a man on the moon, was this solar trip this summer…
History made! The world’s first round-the-world flight powered solely by the sun’s energy completed its year-long, 25,000-mile journey around the globe with no fuel this July.
Maybe your life is simpler, and you are just delivering plums to the next village via a bus. While this strawberry is a kitschy-cave, we think even bus stops can inspire a heart trip…
…by being ‘part-garden!’ Here are some designs my partners and I submitted to San Francisco, I’ve yet to see this fun idea. Any takers?
While we city-folk endeavor to integrate with our fellow earth-dwellers, others thankfully hug the planet’s sacred spaces, while giving a “talk to the hand” to developers, fuel-diggers, frackers, and other f___ers.
“Wolves are highly social, with alpha males and females mate for life, in a variety of habitats, including forests, tundra, mountains, swamps and deserts. Their sense of smell is 100,000 times greater than humans.”
Are you sensing what I’m sensing? That a wolf is smelling you right now?!! Egads! We are like Pokémons for the wolves!
Heal Thyself Hints: Ease that stress and Get to Know Yer Wild Flower, Purple Cone Flower or Echinacea, wild and cultivated to power up your immune system…Much more slow pokey than Pokémon spottings, happily even The New York Times extolled the healing effects of naming plants in its #IntentionalSummer series by KJ Dell’Antonia…and on Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 4 is a core song along my journey, start yours here vastly inspired: Gnarls Barkley’s Going On.
COME TO MAMA, THE 5TH CHAKRA IS TO CREATE + COMMUNE.
The 5th gate/chakra in Tracing the 9 Stars represents the mother in traditional Feng Shui. Located at our throats, where our voice and creativity commune and create. So much came to voice this summer in our culture and communities. Like Thoreau and Monet, we stared silently and listened deeply at The World Contained As A Pond for wisdom, integration, sinking in, drinking in, and reflecting upon its little world of watery emotions.
Back in the city, pond pads and bubbles to ponder deeply came in the form of Pat McGrath‘s masks for Givenchy 2014 RTW at the Cooper Hewitt Museum‘s Beauty show, which intrigued for mix of design disciplines and multiples of expressions.
While Pat in the UK is painstakingly beading, the exhibition showed Finland’s artist Tuomas Markunpoika burning away structure, all at once communing to create new forms and blow the bubbles to make wishes on the temporality of it all.
A #1 curiosity in my cabinet is this flower:
Heal Thyself Hints: Above, this Get to Know Yer Wildflower is a complete mystery, I see it every year in Carl Schurz Park on the East River in NYC. A kiss to anyone who can identify it. It looks like girlfriend, Bee Balm, here below, and native wild girl Honeysuckle had a love fest.
Or else its just a Gigantoraptor-Trans version. Here, the Honeysuckle babe sticks out her tongue to taunt me: (Please also tell me I am not the only one in NYC obsessed like this!)
I taunt back: “Yo, ya’ll reached my voice mail, Honeysuckles. I’m out rompin’ with the wolves, leave me a message.” Give this silly song a spin to inspire a romp: Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 5: Voicemail from Green Velvet & Patrick Topping.
WISE QUEENDOM, WISE KINGDOM. 6TH CHAKRA.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.
I surprised a longtime friend the other day talking about my two-year studies with an Iroquois teacher many moons ago. I was young and annoyed the second year that the rituals were exactly the same as the first year, repeated. “I already did this!”
You must be laughing, smarter than me, knowing that in the book of life and The Book of Elders, The Life Stories & Wisdom of Great American Indians, everything is on cyclical repeat. So no surprise when a book by the same author, The Brazilian Healer with the Kitchen Knife by Sandy Johnson, was given to me this summer. Travels to visit mystics and shamans who heal, it was another reminder of the mystical sources of healing within us.
The Wild, Healing things are behind what we can see with our two eyes. We are learning to trust our third eye, our sixth chakra where wisdom lives.
Hunter gatherers of wild things are all over Netflix’s Chef’s Table. Here’s one you may not know, I happily just discovered The Druid of Paris this summer…
The Druid of Paris, aka The Dude named Stephane Meyer, wildcrafts plants to make his absinthe bearing the name of the Celtic clans of every mountain where he travels. See waaaay more with the green fairy, the wild flower, wormwood!
Drinkee-poos made by the Druid.
Heal Thyself Hints: Drinkwise, Absinthe has a green fairy-tale history, and smart readers will note the similar leaves to Mugwort, described above for enhanced dreams. Wise to identify your plants before making moonshine: Get to Know Yer Wild Flower, Wormwood, both are in the Artemisia family, along with Tarragon…respecting the power of talking with herbs and women-folk reminds me of these song lyrics from Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 6: Boss, Disclosure on Moog for Love:
“Yeah she’s the boss and I’m an old romantic doing favors, don’t look good on paper. But when she looks behind these eyes girl I can see the psychic, and baby I like it”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMf9V8uLmKc
FAME RESTS ON SELF-CONFIDENCE + THE 7TH CHAKRA PORTAL FOR TRANSCENDENCE.
FAME is like LOVE, all rests on placement and context.
For instance:
Exhibit A: Bright verdant seaweed swaying in a tidal pool can be the softest, most beautiful, most famous thing, very like the slow-mo fabric waves around a prancing runway model…except when a loud child or adult gets frantic stepping on it in the ocean screaming a repeated “Eeeww!” breaking the reverie like the Village Idiot.
Exhibit B: Take a few famous people, undress them, bed them together, and float them on Tidal sounds like a real sexy party-game, as seen in Kanye‘s latest video, Famous, except I’m absolutely sure that sliding against large ego, waxy, sweaty people on poly-satin sheets is as fun as the Village Idiot. “Eeewww!”
The controversial new video for his song, Famous, is inspired by artist Vincent Desiderio‘s painting Sleep, and it woke up some ire. Waxy celebrities snooze in bed with West and Wifey, Kim Kardashian, including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Chris Brown, George W. Bush, Caitlyn Jenner, Donald Trump, and Bill Crosby.
It’s a toss-up as to which drama, the US election, celebrity sex scandals, or this snooze-fest video most exemplifies the famous fairy tale, The Emperor Has No Clothes.
I was more taken with the trippy pre-show live-feed, a visual voyeuristic opera for Famous mesmerizing with buzzing, trance music, film-drones sweeping high and low, while an audience of the un-famous and famed ones filtered in at the Forum, sat and did simple, silly and very human-sweet things. For me, this said more about FAME than the silent middle of the video, waxy people breathing, waxy bodies, waxy music.
Famous inspired our gal, Lena Dunham, usually a fan of Kimye, to take a stand (very 7th chakra) and very vocal on the inclusion of wax nude female celebrities. This summer we needed this power of scrappy, unruly wolf girls like Lena and Remy Holwick, the model, photographer, and feminist activist who began a Girl Cult to collectively write letters to unseat the judge that let the Sanford rapist go free. I swooned when Remy and I connected on Instagram and I hail to these dirty healing gals, existing in all of us as described by Clarissa Pinkola Estés:
Of course, then came Kanye’s Wolves video. Not surprised.
It followed Famous, awakening more sleeping people, Balmain-clad, who then paraded and shed tears. The potentially blinding glare of fame, seen thru the eye of Kimye, it let us peep a more poetic, less waxy-navel-ego contemplation of Fame.
Meanwhile, also less waxy-weird, Get To Know Yer Wild Flower with some saponin-rich White Campion, often found bobbing and jostling like paparazzi at the top border of beach and field, peeping as the sunbathers take their seats. Described in nature guidebooks as having a “beautifully veined swollen calyx sac.” HMM…better public nudity.
Heal Thyself Hints: And, as seen below, we recommend Madame Tussards for famed wax figure viewing…and for the eternal pull to bed down with biggies…something timeless along the lines of Stonehenge: Manhattanhenge, a new, modern, urban summer ritual.
We’ll cruise out of FAME with Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 6:…Generationwhy by Zhu…‘cos, yes “all the kids are waking up and naked when the beat drops.”
DESTINY IS 8TH CHAKRA…THE LOOP OF INFINITY.
Destiny is the white bird on our shoulders, whispering. When we listen, a kind of ‘elevator-up’ foundation rises to the High Road, distinctly remembered. Wave after wave over the years, left foot, right foot, looping forward, looping backwards we seek to move further into the ocean of our feelings and live out our destinies.
( The above wild, ocean girl from my pal artist Florian Heinke)
Water is the sacred possession of the wolf clan in the Native American Winnebago tribe mythology, as it is part of the Waterspirit Clan, and “the Wolf Clan performed social welfare roles, administering public health and safety.”
How to clear the river of our thoughts, how to feel safe among our neighbor humans and beasts, and how to heal our vast planet’s increasingly toxic ocean, symbolic of our wayward veers off the path?
Here are some Heal Thyself Hints:
Long ago, I took a dance class inviting us to feel from our sides, peripherally, non-linearly, which is how whales and dolphins communicate and swim together side-by-side communicating vs face-to-face. To address the ocean’s vastness and restoration, get inspired with your fellow surfers at this model, Parley TV. Parley is formulating exactly that side-by-side, with talks, collaborations, and a collaborative project.
While the heat rises this summer and on the planet, I’m drawn to touch and loop down the earth where coolness reigns, with white, guru-ish, space shoes, like these from Underground, with a sole representing oscillating sound waves. The above is a collab design, inspired by Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album cover, was in turn, inspired by a visualization of the first pulsar —a star that emits electromagnetic waves, thanks to the graphic genius of Peter Saville.
Unless one treads mindfully, one foot in front of the next is a drudgery vs. a journey. In my Feng Shui, I name “destiny” for what is often called the “career” area of a space. In a larger sense our careers are the “carriers” or even the “clans” we select as waves to ride.
Thom Browne, the fashion designer most known for transforming the suited look of nearly every career kid within the “Creative” clan, got shiny for his exhibition, Reflecting on Uniformity, at the Cooper Hewitt until October. Among many messages, it speaks of the Sisyphus nature of corporate life. Brilliantly, more and more of us know in our bones, the wisdom of creating our own journeys.
Precursor to Sisyphus, scarab beetles endlessly rolling balls of dirt were symbol of infinity, eternity, rebirth, regeneration and destiny for the Egyptians. Thus my summer art below with a found, intact beetle and two halves of a large seed pod for his parachute…playing in the wild as always!
Get to Know Yer Wild Flower: That’s my girl, Chicory above, a bright segue from destiny to the 9th chakra/gate “re-elate” as chicory can appear any color from white to pink to blue depending on the acid in the soil or the amount of ants underground…Heal Thyself Hints: Feed one of your two inner wolves mindfully to balance your destiny here …Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 8: is Cats ‘n Dogz b’coz getting equal with the wild is our destiny, so ready to dance because let’s face it, booty comes first.
RE-ELATE YOUR 9TH CHAKRA TO ELATION.
In writing this post I found my collage, above, of me, my father, and a wolf. Wolves are vigilant parents watching over all. Maybe you noticed how the wolf shadowed me this summer from Kanye to even random sightings in a NYC park!
Yes, indeed, that’s a woman shadowing herself from the sun with a wolf…and a fox. I love the “edge of the woods” feel of this photo which I took right in my backyard, Carl Schurz Park. (Not surprised at the “wolf wink” to loop and remember that my photo with my Pop was taken in a place called “Parkview.”)
“A wolf shadows anyone or anything that passes through her territory. It is her way of gathering information. It is the equivalent of manifesting and then becoming like smoke, and manifesting again.”
What to make of these circular returns?
Thankfully, these days, I am a smarter Indian, we all are, keen to repeating patterns in our lives calling our attention, waking us up.
Dream symbols appearing and repeating are keys to home…9 is the last single number, the 3 X 3 of the Magic Square and hashtag #, a crossroads radiating out and spin on the wheel of fortune aka the map of astrology. Like kids in an amusement park, synching our dreams to the symbols the Earth offers means we are the leprechauns guarding our gold under rainbows.
I love one Indian name for Wolf in particular, there are many! This is a way of being in one’s 9th chakra, elated with knowledge, openness and awake to all. The name is: Wanuniníga, translated to He from whom Nothing is Hidden.
Labyrinth, mandala, globe. Life throws less curve balls when we roll in sync with her seasons and natural loops. Every day, dawn to dusk, a loop shadowing our breath and thoughts.
S’why a daily flower swoon is so necessary to note!
Get to Know Yer Wild Flowers: Morning Glories in the AM, drive-in windows open:
…and in the PM, the Day Lilies close up, a finale of their one-day life, as if bowing in the lavender clouds of dawn and dusk.
Curling in…
Heal Thyself Hints: As a Tease before my Organically-Grown-Human Sewn Couture Tease shirts arrive, I adapted one of my popular print designs as seen above, and launched this gorgeousness as organic T-shirts on my shop, The Jade Dress Shop, for women and men. Click here to feel the love, heal, and get this beaut on your bod!
and for the men-folk, click here as well.
They are organic cotton, in a crisp white or a rich walnut color. If you want to Tease a desire, I recommend this T for your heart! (and yes, non-hetero versions are planned…this first is a general “love your brothers and sisters” statement!)
So good to melt into LOVE with this one, my friends, Jade’s Get Happy Summer Playlist 9: Nu Man o To, lyrics by Rumi, sung in the Persian language and translated below:
“You and me, sitting at the veranda, a moment of bliss. You and me, two forms, two bodies, one soul. You and me, far from the mingling lies, a careless joy. Neither you are nor I am, we are one with love, you and me.”
Rumi
In closing, take the high road friends, enjoy the ride, and get wild so we all heal!
Contribute to wolf knowledge and preservation here with the International Wolf Center. Because you are a smart human who knows gathering for good is better than isolation via walls or targeting humans or species, click here for Defenders of Wildlife, who are helping the distressed Mexican gray wolf population.
Thank you!
***
Written by me, Jade Dressler.
Many photos also mine, photo of Little Marvin, by Timur Civan.
Photo credits for others gladly posted. LMK!
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Tags: 1990 new york city, 2016, absinthe, Ariana Huffington, Balmain, Bar Pleiades, Baubo, Beauty, Bee Balm, Bill Maher, Boss, Brainpickings, bus stops, C. Fornicata, Caitlyn Moran, Carl Schurz Park, Cats 'n Dogz, Cee-Lo, Celine Semaan Vernon, chakras, Chef's Table, chicory, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Day Lilies, Defenders of Wildlife, Deray McKesson, Disclosure on Moog for Love, Dr. Vincent Pedre, Echinaea, elder, Elie Wiesel, fairy tale, fame, Florian Heinke, Generationwhy by Zhu, gnarls barkley, Going On, Grace Lant, H.U.V.A. Network, healing, hero, HIllary Clinton, Honeysuckle flower, Imprint of Pleasure, International Wolf Center, jade dressler, Journeys, Joy Division, Kanye, KJ DEll'Antonia, Lena Dunham, Little Marvin, Magic Square, Manhattanhenge, Mars, Max Lugavere, Michelle Obama, Morning Glories, MOss, Mugwort, myth, Myth Can Make Reality More Tangible, mythology, Native Americans, NEW YORK, Nikes, Nu Man o To, NYC, Parley TV, Pat McGrath, Peter Saville, playlist, Pokemon, Purl Soho, Purple Cone Flower, Queen Anne's Lace, Raised by Wolves, Reflecting on Uniformity, Remy Holwick, Rio Hamilton, Rumi, sacred sites, Sandy Johnson, Savoir Beds, Savoy Hotel, scarab, shadowing, Sisyphus, Slow factory, Sneaker Pimps, Summer, Tasha Blank, Tease, The Book of Elders, The Druid of Paris, The Emperor Has No Clothes., The Surrey Hotel, Thom Browne Selects, Tracing the 9 Stars, Tube & Berger, Tube & Berger & Milan Euringer, Tuomas Markunpoika, Underground, Unknown Pleasures, Vincent Desiderio, Voicemail Green Velvet & Patrick Topping, Waterspirit Clan, wheel of fortune, White Campion, wild, wild flowers, Winnebago, wolf, wolves, women, Women Who Run With The Wolves, wormwood, Yahoo
Puddle-jumping here. With a full soak of rain this Spring in NYC, Paris and Milan…and some testing emotional astrology… we find ourselves leaping into Summer over puddles of moods and feelings, from curbs onto crosswalks as the lights change to green.
My collage above was inspired by the chicest woman ever. Stopped in the blue grid of the city, I spotted her from my taxi window poised curbside.
The light changed. In one swoop, her hand pulled the hood of her chic little black dress forward shielding her from the blustery purple rain picking up again, she jack-knifed one stiletto like lightening over a puddle, and leapt like a cat to solid ground, “the decisive wind in her sails.”
One. Two. Three punches and puddles of tears lately with the passing of three true huge mental-stiletto icons, Bowie, Prince, and Ali…
Ali here with the wind at his “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” back.
These three!
Their inspiration as free people moving humanity forward
will live forever on.
Their wise quotes are sprinkled here among other bon mots from other towers of power in this, (my 99th post!) Along with new trends of people, places, and things I’ve spotted lately, we follow my map called Tracing The 9 Stars, as a system to link our 9 chakras of innate sense, with spaces and places underfoot and beyond to discover the trends for 2017.
Get-on-down-and-party with us this month, as we cover NYC’s annual design shows ~ the art and surface designs of the Surtex show; the objets and furnishings of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF); to the meeting of technology and touch of Anna Wintour‘s Manus x Machina Fashion in an Age of Technology, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute ~ plus my musings at everything tiny and large of my own art, the streets, and gala events.
But first, let’s eat.
EAT: Strawberries, because it’s June.
Fruits swell in the dewy fields, the dawn air rings clear and scented, farmer’s markets swing open. Get on down, inhale a strawberry. Getting rooted is a trend. Get in alignment with the earth and the purest vibe.
Aligning with the primal, our first energy chakra of survival and connection to the Earth is basically our seat. Even to begin the day, if you haven’t yet tossed the morning coffee and carbs, prepare to be amazed how those juicy, delicious morning fruit “smoothies” everyone is so hot on will get your tail moving for the day. From the you-dedicated moment to prepare it; the touch and mess of wet fruit; the pulsing-with-life greens; the entrancing roots like ginger plus highly-lively seeds from flax to hemp…
witness the fitness, the whole affair is one sexy ROOTS Manuva.
“You are beautiful because you let yourself feel
and that is a brave thing indeed.”
Feel your first chakra foundations as we pound the pavement or plow the earth. Every spring in the sign of Taurus we build up foundations anew, towards the new mental leaps we take in Gemini in May and to June, the emotional explores we do in the sign of Cancer, towards the brights of a sunny Leo summer,
TREND: “Neutrals offer stability for brights for 2017,” said
The Pantone Color Trend Lady at Surtex in confirmation.
Contrasts spur dreams. Mirrors check foundations. Foundations check sprouts. Check in again and again step-by-step.
TREND. Solid, slow, grounded, well-fed, and rested will leap beyond and win the rat race. It’s the down-low.
Get grounded, get chilled out.
“And yes, the color tan will be de riguer in 2017,”
The Trend Miss continued, approving things like
trees, sand, dirt, and deserts.
Case in point…
Admit you find the above cabinet, not only a ‘tan” epiphany but totally dreamy! As seen at ICFF, the outstanding Skram Furniture is produced in a solar-powered factory, of pepperwood burl with mahogany detailing, and yay! roots! is proudly made in the United States.
TREND: “Orange mist is a thing,” saith the Lady Pantone seductively.
“O, ye Mists of Desire,” saith I.
Misty orange is AKA ‘peach blossom luck’ in Feng Shui, considered the transitory color of great attraction, but the kind of attraction that does not last, like blushing, peaches and peach fuzz. Like all desires and dreams it is impermanence, the only way to see everything without attachment.
“Remember your dream, it’s your only scheme,
so keep on pushin’…”
Marvin Gaye
We wear our dreams on our sleeves, right? The Manus x Machina exhibition effectively and exquisitely venerates the craft and value of dreamy couture, placing vintage and futuristic perfection side-by-side.
The nature of Desire ran amok for me in this peachy Duck Dress by Iris van Herpen. Ducks vs. Dreams on these sleeves! Excess overboard between the duck skulls and the plastic. As a statement of art, eerily powerful. As a GMO at the height of vanity, for me it represents everything at the edge of human ego overboard commanding biology and “machina.”
I am much more inclined to the man, manus, hand, or high-touch aspect. The awe of handwork is the dedication to the moment of creation as well as the implicit destruction of this fragility by Time.
This blush Dior dress below, L’Elephant Blanc or ‘White Elephant,’ is from Yves St. Laurent‘s first collection with Dior in 1958. The name is a double-entendre for the name of a hot Parisian nightclub as well as referring to the outrageous effort and expense of all this handwork.
I loved the housing for the show, ephemeral mesh between structures, a perfect techno-nest for these garments of dream and desire. Here Dior’s quote opens the door to the show.
Blooms, the fluff of birds, and tiny fairy stitches, find more and the most excellent images and details of the show on the fab blog, Style Bubble.
Consider this 1928 Boué Soeurs court presentation ensemble, as proof that…
Stirred emotions at delicacy can be the epiphany.
TREND: Blushing, tenderness and humility are virtues.
“…blushing at all the Afro-sheeners.”
David Bowie
As one of two pale-faced members of my high school’s Black Culture Club, circa 1975, I wasn’t ever blushing over Afro-sheeners. I grew up on soul music and soulful people, it was my connect to deep and authentic emotions where I felt most at home.
However, gingerly blushing like a white peach at the record store counter, I handed over my dollars for Young Americans, intrigued by the orange-haired David Bowie…it was the first rock-n-roll album I ever felt inclined to purchase. Like ‘Peach Blossom Luck,’ it hit me right in my teeny-teen second chakra at age 15, as I began to know loss, detachment, and the ephemeral like a Young American.
“The genius thing we did was, we didn’t give up.”
Jay Z
What does LOVE have to do with it?…with dishtowels? Why am I posting this zesty image below from Helmut Newton?
TREND: “Lemon Zest. Zis col-leur is haute,” panted the Pantone Trend Lady.
(French accent is mine, just for the zest of “zest” itself)
“Kiss someone who makes you feel
their magic in your bones,
who makes you wonder how can someone
who looks like witchcraft at midnight taste so holy?”
Nikita Gill
“Zesty” Love, by Helmut Newton, above and below, dish towels, handwoven, Fresh Yellow, from Stephanie Seal Brown, a 2016 NYCxDESIGN Awards Honoree. She gets the eco-zest prize from me. Her small batch production, high-quality European linen and Egyptian cotton yarns dyed in a Swedish dye house that creates exceptionally rich colors, while adhering to very high environmental standards, all make wiping up very Slow Luxury.
Yellow is everything bright at the center. The Sun, our Manipura chakra, is one layer more zesty than our solar plexus, our digestive fire, and the lemonades of summer.
TREND: Tenderness is Power.
Small batches intrigue, low impact heals.
And a golden moment, below at Manus x Machina with Hussein Chalayan‘s Kaikoku floating dress. A gold cast fiberglass dress hung with Swarovski crystal and pearled paper “pollens,” allowing a wearer to enter from the rear-via a radio-controlled digital handset.
Here is a digital print of the dress, a meditation on art, desire, nature, and technology and architecture.
A film loop displayed by the dress speaks to how we desire and “fish” for the manifestations of our wishes and then embody them. I call this a heart trip, especially poignant with the recent Mars (ego) retrograde and creating new beliefs about ourselves and the world.
I am always intrigued by journeys, especially maps, the abstraction of physical territory, in particular the vintage 1950’s tourist map scarves I am obsessed by. At the Surtex show, archivial design houses made me swoon, tripping over variations like this fishing lure map.
This scarf of Seattle gets me for the happy mid-century color scheme, the silly naive drawings and fishnet reference, like capturing what the heart felt on the trip.
TREND: “We were the first design consulting team to recognize American vintage design as a trend and folk art.”
The Showoff ladies, Joan and Robbie,
who were beyond-kind to let me snap some images.
I also found ‘Design Heaven’ at the Baxter Mill Archive, with over 400,000 designs of the past *gasp* 16 centuries.
TREND: 2 and 3-D maps still intrigue as artifacts, as we now operate at 4-D and next level 5th Dimension. Timeless tools of the heart for higher, abstract trips like Astrology, Feng Shui, and I Ching, which chart the cycles and impermanance of this dance of life, will grow in popularity.
“Life is just a party and parties weren’t made to last.”
Prince
How to move from off-the-map grids to tender communes of touch?
Follow these tangent tendrils…You may know of my obsession with Italy…from Italian pulp movies of the 60’s, to Lake Como, to our sister agency in Milan, who graciously tolerate my ‘Young American” non-Italian speaking ways.
So no surprise at my mind-meld commune with two Italian-based surface design companies thrilling me at the design shows, with these trends I call ‘BLEND.’
TREND: BLEND was seen at Designer #1: Imagine Rococo velvety raised brocades mixing traditional florals, computer pixel patterns on top of metallics in 70’s wallpaper/an acid trip patterns…and Designers #2, two girls with the best designs from AA Design Studio which I noted as: ‘reconstruction collage.’
These patterns go one step beyond last year’s ‘blur’ trend which continues to be hot.
Both so magnificent, futuristic and proprietary that I cannot share their designs here! However, I can share this brilliant find made here in the USA:
To my surprise at a gala this Spring, I discovered a similar beauty, right here in NYC, modeled on the famed Omega Workshops, the Weiner Werkstatte, the Bauhaus, and the American Arts & Crafts movement: Alpha Workshops.
Alpha is an artisan’s atelier which “is dedicated to creating beauty and changing lives.” They are the nation’s only non-profit organization providing HIV-positive individuals with industry specific training and employment in the decorative arts. Custom, hand-blocked prints of all intricacies for wallpaper (as in the room above) and objets…I loved the pink and orange wood above and the butterflies, here below, the best. Can you see this as wallpaper?
At their annual gala, gorgeously, rich, original prints were on exhibit, the layered beauty rivaled the new prints from Italy! This article on 1stdibs.com tells more.
Speaking of community clubs of empowerment and creativity, this year’s annual Glastonbury festival will create a secret space for “intersectional, queer, trans and disability-inclusive,” a safe place for all people who identify as women.”
TREND: Protection for the tender or marginalized actually BLENDS, extends and embraces diversity.
Go girls! Go Female Wisdom! Let’s hear your voices! Go Hillary.
(You knew that was coming!)
TREND: “Blues will turn into turquoise greens for 2017,”
purred the Pantoness.
I loved the bamboo lamps at ICFF by Andrea Claire Studio, they come as crazy-shaped chandeliers, desk, or table lamps to illuminate wisdom, plus they are made with sustainability in mind. Smart!
The company’s booth was equally Smart. Inviting community engagement via a picnic table with self-serve water and intriguing, earthy shapes for guests to conversate around was very Wise.
Yellow jump-suited workers said ‘service with a smile’, and a sense of Learning was suggested through the chalkboard and community tables.
This type of mutual engage of both the brain and emotional molocules is Wisdom! We all know ’emotional intelligence’ is a very hot trend and so this Spring, I checked into re-hab for a confab with one of my favorite wise gurus, Thich Nhat Hanh.
“In our time it’s a luxury to just sit and not do anything.
It’s also crucial to our healing and nourishment.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“I’m the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was. I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world
that I really was the greatest.”
Muhammad Ali
If you are in the game, you are in the game to win. The seventh chakra behind the third eye is the “guru chakra” the larger, all-knowing YOU. IT represents self-confidence and fame. Clearly Ali was operating from this mind-set.
As the “support beam and spine” of a space, IT vibrates to the color red, thus these uplifting stools from design ‘Tower of Power,’ Tom Dixon, that caught my eye at ICFF.
Also note the mix of copper lamps with the clear red and the neon EXIT sign. All together duly noted by me, The Futurist, before I heard the Pantone Lady confirm and intone:
TREND: “Red moves into corals and coppery metallics, this is IT,”
intoned the Pantone color expert.
Of course, this red blossom, papasan Bloom chair from one of my favorite designers, whom I covered waaaay-back when he began his biz, Kenneth Cobonpue…is so IT too.
“Embracing the mystery and state of unknowing…is where true power comes from… and is the Alchemy of Surrender.”
Here for the eighth chakra, one’s destiny or path in life is Mechial, the designer/creator/owner of Sublime, we immediately bonded, are you surprised? Her Opulence Alchemy collection is designed for “luminous living.” I say it gives that timeless LSD vibe and the cool smooth surfaces feel like marble or deep outer space. So eighth chakra, so infinity!
Are you surprised that as a teen of the 70’s I am super-partial to this Italianate-retro-glam-hippie-groovy-Superfly-dreamy bed chamber?
“Ooooh Superfly, you’re gonna make your fortune by and by…”
Curtis Mayfield
That’s Dreamy Destiny!
Here’s my view from the audience at the Surtex Trend Theatre, the emerging “Generation Z” is mentioned here with their motto that beauty must be authentic. That beauty includes gender mixing and new inventions that make funny faces at the old guard. A re-mix and re-elation.
Another case-en-point:
I love designer, Anna Karlin‘s gemmed and gamine-legged jewelry case here for Sorellina at the Gramercy Park Hotel.
“I turned the penthouse…into a magical garden of moss and wild flowers with the cases nestling in the foliage.”
Anna Karlin
Anna, here, on the street, above and below, alchemist Anna’s ‘Juliet’ test tube vessels, blurring science by mixing it fluidly with some brassy, heavy-stopper romance. (No Virginia, this is not ‘steampunk,’ unless you want to swig turbine fluid in these…no, it’s ‘authentic beauty.’)
Trends morph and evolve like organic lava lamps, and of course, I saw several examples of the “blur trend” mentioned by last year’s Pantone lady.
Warp & Weft‘s flatweave rugs remind me of Soundcloud‘s music making for a pattern to meditate, elevate and elate to. Another design team is listed in my notes to mention “the young designers in the batiky-thingy”…translating to: you should keep your eye on Eskayel, a New York-based team creating sustainable wall-coverings, fabric, carpets, accessories and furnishings in blur-worthy and re-elatable materials and spirit.
The Eskayel kids. I joined a posse of about 5 photographers in a crowd to take this picture of the resting and elate-relational designers, which goes to show you that these kids have
“some kind of nature, some kind of gold.”
Gorillaz
A most sustainable luxury that I happily found at ICFF were Katie Deedy‘s Grow House Grow cement tiles. Known for her narrative-based and delightful wallpapers, she now offers 100% natural, water cured cement tiles. They invite you to relate with them…they tell stories too! This pattern is named for the plant nettle, full of its own stories and plant wisdom.
Here’s Katie in front of some of her papers. Wallpaper is like the 9th chakra, it is the story that holds a space.
And further incantations from my 9 Stars Feng Shui playbook, multi-color, multi-level is the vibration of the 9th bagua or gate of energy. All colors in the spectrum make up in pure light, right?
Think Rainbows. Stories. Adventures.
Case in point. Ask any woman how she feels in a wide circle skirt. It is like a bell, there is this gathering up from the earth and held in at the center. These circle skirts below from Dior at the Met show are thusly elating!
See this gossamer fabric and metallic, bright stripes up close.
Which leads us my own Man-x-Machina:
Back in the eighties, I made my first bracelet from a tin can above. The last in that series was a tin can turned into a birch tree cuff, using leather, fiber, and a lot of hand work.
Way before JP Gaultier‘s 1990-era can-cuffs and perfume cans, mind you, in the 80’s I felt compelled to make a can cuff to wear with my Madonna-esque outfits, like it was a DNA chain from Warhol to me. The Damien Hirst add came just now…as I ponder containers of all kinds from skulls to cans.
“I would like to say to people: open your eyes and find beauty where you normally don’t expect it.”
Gaultier on perfumesociety.org
Here, Gaultier’s visionary ad, a prescient nod to Pantone’s color of 2016…
Rose Quartz and Serenity.
There has never been 2 colors of the year, and I love that this togetherness essentially creates lavender, so aligned to the white light vibration of the 9th chakra and the 9th star on my map, for ‘relationship.’
Pantone was inspired by the growth of “mindfulness and well-being as an antidote to modern day stresses, welcoming colors that psychologically fulfill our yearning for reassurance and security (that) are becoming more prominent.”
Rose Quartz and Serenity together
also challenge traditional perceptions of color association.
“… gender blur… gender equality and fluidity …
less concern about being typecast or judged
and an open exchange…”
Pantone
On the building of “The Greatist” museum:
“I want a place that would inspire people to be the best
that they could be at whatever they chose to do,
and to encourage them to be respectful of one another.”
Muhammad Ali
“I don’t run, I dance.”
Ali
TREND: On the move, like Ali and my puddle-leaping woman at the beginning of this post,
I’m dancing and leaping forward until next month!
Thank you for reading, you futurist, you!
xoxo Jade
***
Art and photography by me, unless otherwise credited. If you would like credit, please poke us, we’ll gladly add. I must also add that the Pantone Color Trend Lady is actually named
Laurie Pressman, and although I played around a wee bit with her color predictions…I am her fan!
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Tags: AA Design Studio, Ali, Alpha Workshops, Andrea Claire Studio, Anna Karlin, Baxter Mill Archive, Boue Soeurs, Bowie, can cuff, chakra, costume institute, Curtis Mayfield, Damien Hirst, design shows, Dior, duck dress, Eskayel, Feng Shui, Gorillaz, Grow House Grow, Helmut Newton, Hussein Chalayan, I Ching, ICFF, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, Iris van Herpen, jade dressler, Jay Z, JP Gaultier, June, Katie Deedy, Kenneth Cobonpue, Laurie Pressman, Lemon zest, Manus x Machina, Mechial, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Muhammad Ali, Nikita Gill, NYC, Pantone, Prince, Roots Manuva, Rose Quartz, Sarah Varcas, Serenity, Shinji Moon, Showoff, Skram furniture, Slow Luxury, Stephanie Seal Brown, strawberries, Style Bubble, Sublime, Surtex, The Met, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tom Dixon, Tracing the 9 Stars, Trends, Warp & Weft, white elephant, witness the fitness, Yves St. Laurent
Spring U-Turns n Trends
Happy Spring Rising.
Dearly Beloved. We are here to get thru this thing called LIFE.
Happy Spring Up-Rising and U-Turning. Spring allows “u” to rise to your best “U.” Everything surrounding is expanding, going higher, going deeper. Un-hibernating, we raise our arms up to the sun and root deeper in the physical earth. Looping and magnetizing our own within thought : emotional : body highway to align with Universal Law of Attraction. With 5 planets retrograde or making U-turns in the heavens at the beginning of the season, the value of steering ourselves in alignment with this movement is imperative magnetics!
In the oldest roots of language, Sanskrit, the letter ‘U’ is the sound “oooo” that stands in the middle of the sound “OM” in its true spelling: A:U:M. The sound also translates to “movement, upward.”
I’ve seen the meaning translated as: “pervasive, contained or progressive existence, command, or acceptance.” A teacher once told me it meant “circumstance.” We see that experience = circumstance as a circle or a circumference around us. A “circle-U-stance” around where we are standing. (especially in our viewpoints translating/manifesting into that world
we create and experience as ‘Our LIFE’)
As I see it our goal is to stand in ourselves, experience all things desirable and uncomfortable and cultivate moving our fear to love. Every fear offers that opportunity, both personally and culturally. To make that U-turn consciously, to turn oneself on, this in turn affects everything around us.
In the face of what wants healing within our souls and on the planet, I champion beauty, fun, and play.
Among the “10,000 Other Fun Looping and Evolving Things” of the Tao, All-That-Is, we invented a map we call “Magic Square of Nine” to orient ourselves:
If you have been following our blog for awhile, you know we love ourselves this Feng Shui map system which is based on a ritual called “Tracing the Nine Stars,” outlining a way of movement to navigate and align our bodies, rooms, homes, and spaces based on the earth and universal sacred geometry. Why is this important? If this beautiful planet seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, aligning with the architecture of Universal Love is a good plan. Newbies, you can read more about “Tracing the Nine Stars” it here.
This month we bring you 9 delights, each with a new category representing what we call “Nine Stars” or chakras, the energetic, vital wheels or “U” centers for…inspiring aspects of our lives that …we want to share with you!
Herewith. the latest trends to EAT, DREAM, CREATE, HEART, COMMUNE, and grow your WISDOM, FAME, DESTINY, and ability to RE-ELATE. Lots of deep green botanical dives to bookend the post…because it’s Spring!
EAT: What we eat grounds us. Our 1st chakra. Our latest delicious:
When we trace the 9 stars, we start at the root. Eating roots us in our primal, ancestral rhythms and this shared experience intricately ties us to the universe.
As a kale-lover-organic-eater for over 20 years now and a hungry New Yorker accustomed to the latest and best (and even healthy) restaurants, I’ve wondered what the next level of the farm-to-table trend might be. If the purity of food is healthy, what if there was a place where a 5-star chef and a doctor meet on common ground?
There is and the answer is Bouley Botanical.
On a recent Spring evening, our client, integrative physician, Dr. Pedre was invited to present at a special Happy Gut dinner at master chef David Bouley‘s Bouley Botanical restaurant space in Tribeca, New York City.
The event was part of Bouley Botanical’s Doctor and the Chef Series. The evening featured a multi-course tasting menu, along with talks by Dr. Pedre and Chef David Bouley on healing through food. The evening was truly a memorable, extraordinary culinary journey through multiple dishes which we’ll recap here!
First, the space….
Elegant and open…filled with the scent of the live herbs growing happily! Chef Bouley explained the special fans and environment cultivated for the health of these herbs. Sixty diners filled these tables for the event.
The venue is filled with life, here is the stairwell column, which is covered in black felt pocket “homes” for each herb!
The juxtaposition of herbs and urban shows us we can find balance in the worlds which stimulate us and create health. Below, is the “herb wall” separating the dining space from the kitchen.
The room filled with guests and Chef Bouley spoke about his background working with the freshest produce and re-visiting heritage methods to create purees and oils of garlic.
Chef Bouley calls these “basic tools” to have on hand as “building blocks’ in your kitchen that are anti-cancer and…
Chef Bouley next introduced Dr. Pedre, who spoke about the pillars of his Happy Gut Program. Dr. Pedre aptly explained his analogy of a garden wall to illustrate what makes a healthy gut, as he explained on his Good Morning America segment.
While we have more microrganisms than stars in the Milky Way, our stomach lining is one cell thick with cells tightly compacted like the stones of a wall. Many factors change the permability and thus the immunity defenses of this lining which in turn compromise our health. These include pesticides; GMO foods, which now range from potatoes to fish; stress; gluten; acid and sugar imbalances…such a long list!
Thankfully, a happy gut is obtainable as outlined in Dr. Pedre’s book HAPPY GUT, The Cleansing Program to Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Eliminate Pain, and his cleanse program.
After Dr. Pedre’s talk, the most amazing appetizers began to appear.
This was a delicate crisp made of kuzu topped with black truffle. A carrot and tumeric soup with sunchokes was next served. Then the asparagus appeared!
This was a concert of French Provence White, Jumbo Green and Pencil Asparagus swimming in Bouley Botanical Chlorophyll Blast and Fresh Passion Fruit.
As a first course, this moon-shaped dish appeared next with the first of the season, Wild Salmon with Organic Quinoa, Celery Root, Porcini Mushrooms and Ginger Yuzu Botanical Herbs Dashi.
The second main course was organic chicken, here opened, so you can see all the delicious ingredients. This was Pennsylvania Chicken with Wild New England Ramps, Wild French Blue Foot Mushrooms and Colorado Morels!
For dessert, this sculptural beauty arrived. Hibiscus Granite, when opened…
…revealed New York State Cascade Grape Sorbet, with Tahitian Vanilla ice.
So much inspiration, information and delicious tastes all evening. This kind of collaborative evening happily moves the realms of health and food closer. We see that by tending to our health (and our desire for delicious food!) we can contribute to the health of the planet.
DREAMS. Time to review your own Emotional Library in Grand Form. Have a seat. Ponder your 2nd chakra.
“A chair for the guest,” said our client, interior designer Scott Sanders of this metal mesh chair created by Shiro Kuramata called “How High The Moon,” that Sanders used in his Library imagined for this year’s Sotheby’s “At Home” Designer Showhouse and Auction.
Like guests, emotions (except love!) are at their best to be nothing permanent and easily sifted through. For our own libraries of information, be they emotional storage spaces within, physical rooms, social feeds, or stored on the cloud, we like them to equally be comforting and stimulating.
The “technology” of our emotions can be mapped by our desires, dreams, and experiences. (in that order too, please1) Like any technology it can be a system that serves us, and like a library full of information, we can emerge smarter if we know how to dance with the flow.
“The library is a space of personal growth,” says Sanders of his library room above, adding that like the rest of a client’s home, “it should offer the latest 21st century technology.”
Sanders’ Showhouse Library at Sotheby’s was among twelve signature rooms curated by designers with pieces from a range of Sotheby’s departments, including 20th Century Design, Prints, Silver, Photography and English furniture.
Sanders placed graphic ‘Stars’ from artist Sol Lewitt over a William and Mary Giltwood Stool, late 17th century, covered in bordello red velvet in one corner for solo wisdom worship, above, and in another corner a sleek, sexy invitation to play with others.
Here a mirrored bar tray holds the sacred fluids necessary for any library.
Here in another corner…
A photograph by Malick Sidibe, “Nuit de Noel” sits above a pair of Regency Mahogany Hall chairs on a carpet that looks like a computer board as if waiting to dance. A contemplative corner for the call to dance by ancient lyrical lutes and love. That’s my kind of emotional library!
CREATE. How to center your creative POWER in your 3rd chakra? Go to a POWER PLACE. Loosen your Soul in a Merge of Art, Personal, and Shared Space.
The solar plexus middle of our bodies is the intersection. Where our ability to merge and viscerally digest and understand a another person or circumstance. When a space is integrated, so are we.
Exhibit A: The Vine Hotel, NYC. The Vine merges the personal, social via its merge of personal art, and social set ups and rooms that flow between spaces for merging, working, playing, or eating. A ‘cast of thousands’ collaborated and merged the art of this space with design by Creme with Reunion Goods & Services, collections of objects and furniture from WE CAME IN PEACE, with the art collection curated by Kyle DeWoody, noted for her smart art | design merge urge satisfies.
While I waited for my breakfast companion, Kal Holczler of Excursions Elite, I settled into the space in another library, a little loft sitting just above the main dining area encouraging a mixing of talk, a curling up with cocktails or the hotel’s healthy Liquiteria juices.
Looking out from the library’s tree slab table balcony…
…one can see the ceiling net sculpture by artist Kwangho Lee, a signal to loop and weave.
The net effect is a translation all the architectural beams and grids into a relaxed, free-form, interconnected, weaving message looping nicely above where people gather to eat.
The Art and Weave message doesn’t stop inside the borders of the restaurant. The multi-gender bathroom continued the grids. Hmm, so simple, isn’t this multi-gender idea, the 3rd choice and perfect answer to all the M + W segregation hubbub these days?
An assemblage of white gloves over the shared sink emphasized the usual hygiene message “wash-hands everyone” into something way more fun.
Hands behind screens beckoned every which way, so like the way our own 3rd chakra is the place of feeling, considering, and acting on gut/intuitive decisions between ‘this’ and ‘that’.
My outfit was picking up on the decor, the undulating panels of my creme-colored silk blouse design and the soft grey wool and canvas of my vest echoing the silky creme lingerie art on the walls…more on that further on in this blog.
HEART TRIP. The energy of the heart area chakra is transformative, the heart, travel, and fatherly guru energies are why. Ticket, please!
HELLO from down above! Above is Antartica hosting photographer, traveler Mark Lakin of Epic Road, a travel company we at Slow Luxury are partnered with. Mark presented ‘Journey to the Last Frontier on Earth’ at the Soho House this April, part of his ongoing series there. Talk about opening ones’ heart, can you imagine swimming with this whale shark?!!
Epic Road creates tailor-made adventures, holidays, luxury safaris and honeymoons in Africa, the Indian Ocean, Asia, the Arctic and Antarctica that combine the planet’s great explorations with thought-provoking experiences related to humanitarian and conservation initiatives.
“Epic Road has created a new genre of travel, called “transformative travel,” relates Mark, “by creating exceptional, mind-expansive journeys that inspire, captivate, and thrill.”
Here is the USA Today story on the trend that we garnered for them.
Epic Road believes that travel can power massive positive change in the world, whether it is a trip of a lifetime or the desire to sustain our world that follows. Mark beguiled with tales of vast masses of penguins and how they huddle together for warmth, taking tiny steps in unison to keep moving. Such a vision of the power when individuals come together!
I know, this wintry scene has little to do with the current climate…
…but everything to do with the power of shared hearts leading to a “commune” as in communicating and community. Let’s go there.
COMMUNE : Plant your Message Powerfully in the 5th chakra, your voice. Rap Music on Lingerie is just one amusing example, see here:
As promised, lingerie. Here an artist, Zoe Buckman, is embroidering the most famous lyrics of Notorious B.I.G and Tupac on vintage lingerie from cone bras to silk slips. This was the art in the bathroom of the Vine Hotel, and honestly, where better to commune the misogyny and feminism in rap lyrics than in a multi-gender bathroom?
Read my hips.
Right when I was reading about Zoe’s next LA show ‘Every Curve,’ in Harpers Bazaar, as if on cue…
…a pop up email sign up appeared, leading me to check the box ‘No, thanks, I’m not interested in reading about the 12 Shoes Every Woman Should Own.’
Seriously? While I love Harpers Baazar, what stands for “women’s wisdom” these days is thankfully challenged by artists like Zoe.
WISDOM The world’s 3rd eye chakra sees global play | work | sustainable pals for all. The 6th chakra is the nest.
NYC is home to many new flockings together, one recent evening offered a new one. NEST, the non-profit organization committed to the social and economic advancement of global artisans and homeworkers through their investment in sustainable business development and industry advocacy, hosted an evening of enterprising wisdom, Moroccan mint cocktails, and a scented, visceral connection to earth. A new kind of U-TURN welcome to Spring.
About 50 women landed to NEST at The Sabah House, a double height loft space owned by one male / bartender to learn about Nest‘s recent work in Morocco developing sustainable employment opportunities for the women who extract Orange Blossom oil in Morocco’s historic flower district.
Fragrance expert, Lisa Wilson was genius at awakening equally our senses and understandings of the economic realities of the fragrances that come to market from springtime in Morocco.
Director of Artisan Engagement at NEST, Annie Millican detailed how artisan production is an opportunity to create economic opportunities that alleviate poverty, empower women, and preserve cultural traditions.
Wise Women! Following the timeless patterns of nature is the future.
One other wise woman made us do a U-turn this Spring. We met Shahla Karimi years ago through her work as personal assistant to Nas and Kelis. She’s since then been on teams for Obama and Theory, and now is a noted jewelery designer. I LOVE her honeycomb ear jacket earrings, all the better to listen to the wisdom of bees, their message in their die-off due to pesticides. Hearing the linked and connected places in our souls make this a piece for smart boys and girls. Humans, that is.
FAME STAR The 7th chakra is Fame or Self Esteem. It is the back wall, the pillar, the backbone or spine of a space…to prove it…we have just one picture that says it all, unites us all in shared contemplation about Fame this season.
Nothing compares 2 U. Ever.
Terrorism at its core is self-hatred.
Hail to the Princes among us that champion LOVE.
LOVE is our DESTINY.
DESTINY The 8th energy is our Path, our Destiny. Are you dancing on your path yet?
I am dancing. Our destiny as humans is happiness and compassion. We are driven by this quest and yet always learning that what we seek is right here dancing with us.
Thanks to my friend, the very creative and philanthropic, film producer Kim Jackson, I am so honored to work this season with Dancing Classrooms for their newest fundraising event, ‘The Elevate Ball,’ coming this Fall to NYC. The mission of DC is to foster self-esteem, social awareness, and joy in children by providing the opportunity to learn and perform ballroom dance. Classes happen all over the world and have been the focus of several movies:
I cried from joy recently when invited to watch several classes of beautiful young things, all shapes, sizes, shapes, genders, faiths, and adorable temperments as they earnestly and enthusiastically rotated and traded partners in classic dances from Ballroom to the Tango to the Hustle. DC calls it “building confidence, breaking down social barriers, and inspiring respect for all individuals.” I call it beautiful.
DC envisions transformative arts programs in all school communities, building confidence, nurturing creativity and promoting a culture of mutual respect and well-being. Who else is fostering this “feeling” with the power to change our destiny?
Lady Gaga.
Lady Gaga‘s mama aka Cynthia Germanotta, President of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation has been working closely with Dr. Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, whose latest studies on the value of Emotional Intelligence are leading the curve. Both were honored at DC’s Mad Hot Ball this spring.
Lady Gaga calls it an Emotional Revolution.
Are you crying with joy for the beauty and potential of these dancing kids yet?
Email us at: news@jadedressler, to stay in touch re: the upcoming
Dancing Classroom’s Elevate Ball.
RE-ELATE 9th
There’s no better remedy to re-elate one’s spirit than a classic movie. Especially one that shows off the meeting places between male and women power, and love and war, case in point, the epic movie, Cleopatra. While Cleopatra enters Rome with a cast of 1000’s proceeding her, and she finally appearing a tiny gold third eye on a black sphinx the size of a cathedral…it was actually the power of little beauties, such as her golden boat of perfumes for her bath that really charmed.
A few weeks prior I listened as our client, perfumer Maria McElroy and April Long, beauty editor of Elle magazine had a coupled swoon moment over the scent and pleasure of Japanese Hinoki baths, so much so I began to float in the conference room!
It is the Japanese mountainside hanging hot tubs built of hinoki wood (Japanese cypress) which are the inspiration behind Maria’s latest perfume, Vanilla Hinoki.
Blog @cafleurebon calls the scent “instantly calming yet elevated as if you came out of a long meditation or dream, like wearing a mist from the early morning hours. A gourmand infused with cedar leaf, lavender, spices, and patchouli that bring out the sauna-like feel of a Japanese spring among the cypress on a mountainside.” The blog included art by Ikenaga Yasunar, which does illustrate the intangible inspiration of the unisex scent.
![Ikenaga+Yasunari+[池永康晟]+-+Tutt'Art@++(66)](https://i0.wp.com/thejadedress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IkenagaYasunari%E6%B1%A0%E6%B0%B8%E5%BA%B7%E6%99%9F-TuttArt%4066.jpg?resize=500%2C301)
You might loll about in undies (with or without rap lyrics) or pose pensively/seductively depending on who is on the room (or photographing you “as if” it’s a selfie.)
THAT is why we love fragrance. It is a selfie experience inspiring fantasy, yet it is real, ephemeral, repeatable.
Or maybe you go get elated with your Gal-Pals to a spa like this:
Or roll-out with Maria’s AromaM‘s roll-ons…
How perfect to change a mood for when planets make u-turns, and introspection to inspire new roles is the call of the day!
Our last ROLL and final WISH…
…to send you forward with the planets after the U TURNS of Spring. For your upcoming Summer travels to far-flung beach or ashram yoga retreats, wood cabins, festivals, or glamping situations, peep this portable luxe bed-in-a-bag…
Our friends at Norvegr sustainably harvest the down feathers of the Norwegian eider duck and clean it by hand in community, as it has been down for over 1,000 years!
The leather carryall holds a 100% down duvet (uniquely crafted by nature to be perfect for any weather) and a pillow with its 400 thread count cotton sateen pillow case. Such an elegant way to travel!
And finally, to see us all off on summer adventures, here is a well-loved sign in my hood’s Carl Schurz Park, a tip of the hat to traveler, explorer, editor-in-chief and one who often walked the circumference of Manhattan, John Huston Finley.
Wishing you all rollicking, re-elated retrogrades, and massive grand visions to roll out when all planets go direct!
xoxo Jade
PS…Oh…and tip: this gorgeous photo is from my new fave Instagram feed: @the_corner_store where the choicest vintage lives.
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Tags: 2016, Annie Millican, April Long, AromaM, At Home, bees, Bouley Botanical, Carl Schurz Park, chakras, circumstance, Cleopatra, co-op, COMMUNE, CREATE, Creme, Cynthia Germanotta, Dancing Classrooms, David Bouley, destiny, Doctor and Chef series, down duvet, Dr. Marc Brackett, Dr. Pedre, DREAM, Eat, Elevate Ball, Elle, emotional intelligence, Emotional Revolution, Epic Road, Excursions Elite, fame, Feng Shui, Happy Gut, heart, Hinoki, honeycomb, jade dressler, John Huston Finley, Kal Holczler, Kwangho Lee, Kyle DeWoody, Lady Gaga, library, Lisa Wilson, Magic Square, Magic Square of Nine, Maria McElroy, Mark Lakin, Mercury retrograde, Moraccan, Neroli oil, NEST, Norvegr, Notorious B.I.G., orange blossom, planet retrogrades, Prince, RE-ELATE, retrogrades, Reunion Goods and Services, Scott Sanders, Shahla Karimi, Slow Luxury, Sotheby's, Spring, The Vine Hotel, Tracing the 9 Stars, Tracing the Nine Stars, travel, Tupac, Vanilla, WE CAME IN PEACE, WISDOM, Zoe Buckman
The long NOW of winter has disappeared. The last shadowy, emotional eclipse, the tiniest soft breeze, an urge tickled over exposed skin, or white snowdrops popping through the earth is all it takes for our hearts to leap a little and feel that Spring is here.
Above, an image that captures this perfectly for me is from the new song and video from Daphne Guinness, (whom I declare has picked up where Bowie dropped us off in space.) Her upcoming album, Optimist in Black, previews with the song, The Long Now, (watch here mesmerized) releasing this May.
Here are 9 more smart, slow luxury treasures: art, books, design, eats, earthy bits, and far-flung inspirations to spur you on on this Spring.
1 girls gone wild
Through my drawing of Daphne, here, I discovered one of her favorite London-based designers, Ada Zanditon, we became Insta-Instagram friends, and I did this portrait of her:
Zanditon makes shamaness warrior gear, segmented and dusted with botanical mechanics enabling her girls to live wild, stylishly leap rivers and channel magic.
Here’s Zanditon and one of her explorations (she’s all about sustainable on top of this design sense!)
Meanwhile in NYC, while it was still blustery and wintery, we trekked to a little house party and well-deserved come-back for Gemma Kahng, an 80’s fab designer who also layers intricate fabrics intelligently.
As if on cue, we passed 80’s reality fashionette star TV hostess, Lauren Ezersky on the street while approaching the tea party/trunk show. Held in a vast loft as a benefit for the American Heart Association, Kahng-clad models mixed with glamour girls, including hosts, Tracy Stern and Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, brand ambassador for shoe brand, Michela Rigucci. Her laced black boots worn with a Flamenco long skirt are most modern kicks ~where hand-made Italian shoes formerly meant a round trip to Italy slow luxury style~ now you can order custom shoes 100% digital and 100% made-in-Italy bespoke to your pieds.
Kahng’s collection, had me sighing over frothy silk frock after frock on a rack, dreaming of that slow, sunny luxury walk of fame, as silk brushes one’s legs in a warm clime.
All this anticipation of delicious play of light feeling arising between the seasons! Still another evening featured my other love…plants!
2 Heirloom Harvest
Toss aside those pills, dirt contains anti-depressants, reported a recent article, with happy gardeners wondering “what took you so long to know that?” At a benefit for Gods Love We Deliver, which donates food to in-bound folks, the Swann Galleries presented the co-authors conservationist and gardener Amy Goldman and daguerreotype photographer, Jerry Spagnoli, of the Heirloom Harvest book. The co-authors’ love for dirt, plants, and empathetic art made in delicate, slow motion, is a perfect read if you are way over “steamboat punk”…and ready to get with the latest moniker…”antiquarian avant-garde.”
The value of antique illustrations, prints, and photographs from places like Swann Galleries or Phyllis Lucas Gallery in NYC seems to rise the faster our culture moves and produces it’s stream of recordings.
Read more on the public radio review of the book here.
As cute as the French expression of affection for a lover, “mon petit chou,” translated to my little cabbage, the images captured by women artists in California, such as this beauty below, opened up more past worlds.
3 Art to Collect: Emerging from the Shadows
Years ago I bought a mid-century, naive style painting of a man in a NYC apartment, I sold it, however, that puppy is surely collectible and worth mucho now. Now if one wanted to add art poised to grow in value to their collection here’s my tip: Acquire Emerging From the Shadows: California Women Artists 1860- 1960, a set of four books by Maurine St. Gaudens from Schiffer Publishing, and study the vast range (320!) of women artists practicing their metier when a “housewife” apron was preferred over an artist smock…this will get you all savvy on this segment of valuable “emerging” art.
Below a portion of artist, Mildred Coughlin‘s 1936 lithograph, The Great Ziegfeld. Her husband was in film in Hollywood, thus her red carpet vistas and exhibitions around the world. I love her farmers market sketches too.
Try to Google these gals, it ain’t happening. That’s why I say get thee to finding these works NOW and invest, invest, invest.
Movin’ through Cali…more here.
4 Mama Earth Eat, Pray, Love
I know! More books! But chocolate, bread and wine…are you listening? My friend and eco-warrior, Simran Sethi, traveled the globe to discover the source, the slow loss, and the saving graces of our favorite foods. Her voice is witty with the science, this is a love affair with these foods. She’ll speak at The Open Center in NYC on April 1.
Read more here on her book, Bread, Wine, Chocolate, The Slow Loss of Foods We Love.
For more plant love:
Coming on the 19th of April, master chef David Bouley presents our client, Dr. Vincent Pedre in Bouley Botanicals’ Doctor and Chef series. Dr. Pedre’s Happy Gut book released earlier this year outlines a 360 degree plan for gut health and delicious foods!
The evening will be an intimate dinner and discussion of diet, health and connecting with all things green and healthy. Speaking of…have you met matcha tea?
5 coffee, you metcha matcha
I love when meeting friends at a new spot completely confuses me as to location. If its West Village +++confusion. I literally bumped my mobile into my friend’s mobile, right in front of our destination, Chailait, a sunny, wall of windows at the corner of W4th, 7th and Christopher. Situated where 3 streets converge, ridiculous address! (…I’ll stop, I didn’t have my coffee yet and…)
Filled with what looked like glowing, golden yoga teachers, smart Brooklyn-ish novelists, and fringe fashion influencers, everyone took selfies of their matchas, just like I did above. Matcha is green tea, with a high level of anti-oxidants, chlorophyll, and nutrients, the perfect coffee substitute and match for its caffeine. Chailait was founded by my friend’s friend, she was a former Wall Streeter, who must have drunk tons of coffee.
The benefits abound, read here, and yes, below is avocado toast, the New Yorker’s must-have brunch item. It’s so good. Find your way there!
6 Smaller footprint? How ya like 12 x 12?
“How could humanity transition to gentler, more responsible ways of living by replacing attachment to things with deeper relationships to people, nature, and self?”
You might ask yourself this even now, without the heavy-lifting experience of William Powers, who spent a decade in human justice and conservation work around the globe, only to see the pervasive destructiveness of the world’s current systems.
Fast forward to a meeting with Dr. Jackie Benton, who was petting a bee’s wings while they first spoke, both bee and woman, supremely content. In that moment, Powers saw that the simple life, chosen by this lady-guru living in a off the grid, 12 x12 home surrounded by carefully managed Permaculture land, and the smallest of things, had much to teach him.
Twelve by Twelve is Powers’ experience renting the house, which I read several years ago. The big takeaway for me comes as he drops his en-cultured judgements, values and assumptions in the face of something larger, whether that be others or traits in himself. The bee-wing stroking guru told him the first day:”When you see worthiness, praise it. When you see unworthiness, trace it.” (within yourself!)
New Slow City is Power’s next book where he does the same experiment, this time in a micro-apartment in NYC, exploring Slow Food, Slow Money, technology fasts, rooftop gardening and beekeeping (sounds like Slow Luxury to me!)
Speaking of this structure design of our lives and spaces:
7 it takes 100 years to make a classic
It was only 100 years ago that architect, Sherrill Whiton, set a home-study education course on interior design into the world, which became the New York School of Interior Design, (NYSID) when students began to show up on his doorstep.
It was just 50 years when that drawing to the left venerated the latest Mid-Century design of the time, now classic; and to today, the Target office interiors on the right, where those same comforts of home are now what more of our work spaces are made of. Visit NYSID’s alumni exhibition before April 29, for the whole story on a profession that has keenly reflected and shaped culture’s conversation and identity. This open space design, below, from Alison Irons, for the Department of Climate Change & Energy Efficiency, speaks volumes about new integrated spaces and transparency. Now the newest frontier for an environment re-think is healthcare, thank fully!
Speaking of spaces and places…
8 A New Cruise in Art Basel’s Birthplace
A 17-year partnership and creative journey comes full circle as our client, interior designer, Scott Sanders, has re-imagined one of Miami Beach’s finest Art Deco hotels, The Albion, for his clients, The Rubells, known for their visionary art-collecting, museum-founding, pioneering urban-renewal and genre-defining hotels and hospitality.
The first conversations between influential Miami art scensters about starting a Miami Art Basel fair happened, here, on the Albion’s poolside terrace. Vital to the history and culture of Miami Beach and a very intimate, discreet haven, Sanders, re-imagined a space “where you’re hanging around in a bathing suit but everything you see is crisp and elegant. It’s all about the grand vistas and intimate privacy on a luxury cruise ship.”
From the vast main lobby to all its portholes and curve detailing, Sanders’ design begins where this 1939 classic leaves off. More to come soon!
Talk about streamlined sailors, the Hooded Merganser ducks are back in Central Park…have you ever seen smart nautical design like this?
9 Explore Bespoke Scent + Design Immersed in Marrakech
Imagine your complete sensual immersion in the magical, mystical scents, spices, flavors, and experiences in a place that has attracted artists, free-spirits, and the international jet-set since the 60’s. Luminaries such as Yves St. Laurent, The Beatles and Stones; beauties from Talitha Getty to Madonna and Kate Moss; and world pioneering investors such as Richard Branson, all discovered a secret, precious world. Marrakech, Morocco.
For our first trip this December, Slow Luxury is proud to be partnered with Epic Road, the transformative travel company creating exceptional, mind-expansive journeys that inspire, captivate, and thrill. A Travel & Leisure magazine A-List preferred travel specialist, Epic Road offers immersive and socially conscious experiences from luxury safaris tagging and helping to save the rhino population to honeymoons in Africa, the Indian Ocean, Asia, the Arctic, and Antarctica that combine the planet’s great adventures with thought-provoking experiences related to humanitarian and conservation initiatives.
Join master perfumer, Maria McElroy to create your own scent with the world’s finest oils and discover design treasures with myself, Jade Dressler, a design lover, writer and presenter along with some super denizens of this precious city. For more information go here to our Slow Luxury site.
Until then, enjoy Spring’s flowers, wherever you are, perhaps in Paris, this image below by Aimee Song, inspired for the flowers and the python shoes. Pardon my little personal, romantic memory involving Paris, flowers and python shoes…but hey, that pleasure repeat is what we crave come Spring!
Here in my own neighborhood, the tulips will soon blush Park Avenue…
Here’s to all the beauty, joy, freedom, deep breaths, and compassion of gentler Spring crossing your paths this season!
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Filed under: ART, EARTH, EAT, FASHION, INTERIOR DESIGN, MARRAKECH, NEW GREEN, NY GREEN, SCENTS, THE TOP 9, TRENDS, WORDS | Closed
Tags: Ada Zanditon, aimee song, Albion, Amy Goldman, Bouley Botanicals, Bread Wine Chocolate, Chailait, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, Daphne Guinness, Dr. Jackie Benton, Dr. Vincent Pedre, Emerging From the Shadows: California Women Artists, Epic Road, Gemma Kahng, Heirloom Harvest, hooded Mergansers, jade dressler, Jerry Spagnoli, Lauren Ezersky, Maria McElroy, Marrakech, Maurine St. Gaudens, Miami Beach, Michela Rigucci, Mildred Coughlin, New York School of Interior Design, NYSID, perfume, permaculture, Phyllis Lucas Gallery, Rubells, Scott Sanders, Sherrill Whiton, Simran Sethi, Slow City, Slow Luxury, Spring, Swann Galleries, Tracy Stern, Twelve by Twelve, William Powers
