I ♥ Tom Ford

I have never just posted a photoshoot online –that wasn't my own, of course! But there are few designers - okay NO designers - that I love as much as Tom Ford. His clothes are gorgeous and wearable and sexy and here they are photographed by Steven Meisel who happens to be my favorite photographer. GLORIOUS! And while I know we are all supposed to be getting wet panties at the mere thought of Lanvin for H&M, it just didn't do a damn thing for me. (original Lanvin? That's another story altogether!) I am beyond excited about this and would rather save all my shekels for one piece in this then an entire designer H&M collection....I'm just sayin'...
ps this shoot is from Vogue -the American one -shocking, I know that they would do something decent and give me an excuse to deviate from the Italian version for once.

Why I love NYC

I am inspired by the views from my loft. Yes, I know it can take me 20 minutes or more to get to where I want to go in Manhattan and my rent would not qualify as "cheap" but I have massive windows that give me these views and a sense of space...to me it's worth it! ...and the sunsets are beyond amazing...I'll show those another time.

Inspired by: René Gruau

Fashion Illustration seems bigger than ever, and while it's wildly popular it's good to remember the brilliance isn't new. I just discovered René Gruau who was a major fashion illustrator in the 50s and 60s via Dazed and Confused Magazine.

So simple and yet with a few lines creates a 1960's ideal

 I love the painterly quality of this one and the variations on gold. The girl seems lit from within. 

René Gruau is responsible for the most iconic fashion images of the 1940’s and 50’s. Throughout his career he illustrated for Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin and Givenchy, essentially altering the way luxury fashion was advertised. His most memorable partnership was with Christian Dior, whom he worked with for almost 40 years. Dior Illustrated will celebrate this and feature over forty original illustrations for Christian Dior Parfums, sketches, magazines and poster adverts created by Gruau.

I think these sort of illustrations can be great style inspirations for how to look that is more about the essence than the specifics of a particular garment.  I hope you like these as much as I do!

Champagne + Cookies with Rebecca Minkoff

On Monday, Rebecca Minkoff invited bloggers to her studio for holiday cookie decorating, champagne and a peek at her new giftable collection. I have been a huge fan of her bags for awhile so I was excited to see this new collection of smaller bags and accessories that come in their own boxes to make it easy to wrap as a gift.

And not just smaller handbags and wallets but iPhone and iPad cases as well.

Available at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue stores nationwide, as well as www.rebeccaminkoff.com.

Daniel Saynt of Fashion Indie, Katy Atlas of Sugarlaws.com and Rebecca Minkoff

And while not part of the giftable collection, feel free to get this Mesh Rocker bag for me as a gift! (I won't say no!)

p.s. I'll be featuring Rebecca Minkoff on a Fashion Friday soon on Style Defined!

Andy Warhol Exposures

It may comes as a surprise, considering that I'm a photographer and dressed as Andy Warhol for Halloween and named my new blog Pixie Warhol that I never considered myself a massive fan. Of course I liked his prints but honestly they seemed too hyped when I was younger...it was too easy to throw out Andy Warhol as though it were a secret code to show that you knew art -along with Dali and Pollock. So while I never had anything against him I didn't really pay him much mind. I mean, we're all going to get our 15 minutes, so he had his first. Next!

But last week I saw this quote of his online completely randomly They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself, and it felt like a personal message, and piqued my interest enough to seek out a book about him at the Library. (I adore libraries and the main Brooklyn one is one of my favorites aesthetically - albeit painfully overheated in the winter!) His Philosophy wasn't on the shelves so I quickly grabbed this book Andy Warhol's Exposures. It's basically a compendium of photos he'd taken of famous people along with his stories about them.

It's utterly fascinating and made me jealous that I never got to go to Studio 54 and that nothing exists like that now...Vandam was kind of like that for awhile in the sense of family/familiarity... but honestly the #1 thing that I think is killing the vitality of nightlife is cell phones and text messaging.  Granted nothing beats texting for a good flirtation but often it's just used to mask peoples discomfort with being by themselves for more than 2 seconds. If I ran a nightclub I'd covertly allow smoking inside but make people go outside to use their cell phones. One of the best nights I had was at an early party at Good Units and for whatever reason, no one could get cell service inside. People were actually talking to strangers or at the very least being aware that there were others in their vicinity. Lovely! Oops sorry to go on a mini-rant! Here is another photo from the book...can you tell who it is? (answer is in the tags!)

Video Rewind - Katie Gallagher

This video is an older one from Style Defined of an interview that we did with Katie Gallagher –pretty much before everyone else, if I can add that! I decided to re-post it here because Katie is still great and this was recently unearthed by a well known photographer who is interested in Alex, who is doing the interview. I can't give more details than that for now...

self portrait 001

Sunday, 11/07/10 in my leopard coat...

and a shot wearing my favorite Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses as well as the brilliant "God Save the Queen" t-shirt designed by my friend Christopher Lee Sauve. I wore this tonight to go see the film White Material by Claire Denis and starring Isabelle Hubert at the IFC Film Center. While the film was just okay, the Q+A with Denis and Hubert was great.