David Hamilton Loves The Beach As Much As I Do

Christian Dior at YOOX

In a vintage madness era, virtual boutique YOOX is bringing to its costumers a rare selection of Christian Dior pieces found around the world in cities like New York, Paris and Florence.
With this project, Long Live Christian Dior, YOOX is ending a series of "specials" on vintage clothing which height was last year with Chanel, a sale that sold out in a record time.
Selection from the 40's to the 80's and beyond.
This is my own selection...

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En una época de locura por lo vintage como la que vivimos, la boutique online YOOX aprovecha el tirón para lanzar una serie de prendas del couturier francés Christian Dior encontradas en diferentes viajes por el mundo, Nueva York, Paris, Londres, Florencia...
Con este proyecto, bajo el título de Long Live Christian Dior, YOOX termina asi una serie de especiales "diseñador vintage" que tuvo su punto álgido el año pasado con la venta de diseños de la gran Chanel, una venta que se agotó en tiempo récord.
La selección de Dior recoge prendas de los años 40 hasta llegar a nuestros dias... y aqui, mi selección personal...

Maria Cornejo Celebrates its Tenth Anniversary with A New Space in New York

I do ALWAYS carry my digital camera with me in case something exciting happens and needs to be snapped. But yesterday I decided I didn't want to carry it; after all I didn't plan to do anything special, just taking a walk. Thus I wanted to avoid extra weight on my shoulder... I wanted to feel light as a bird.

My friend Max called me during my walk inviting me to the opening party that Maria Cornejo was throwing in order to celebrate her tenth anniversary with Zero Maria Cornejo.
The venue was the new location purchased by the Chilean designer in Blecker street at Mott in Manhattan.

I asked; may I go home to change cloths and pick up my camera?... mais no!
Come here RIGHT NOW, this will finish in an hour...

So there I went, looking rather dull and with no camera to record the event.
The space was filled with super duper fashionable people, and it was a surprise that no one stopped me dead at the entrance (i swear, i was looking bad, bad): Victoria Bartlett, the people from Three as Four, Maria herself... I love Zero Maria Cornejo so it was a shame i wasn't ready to be introduced to her...

The space was big and very white, pictures of past collections and campaigns hanging on the walls and the most emblematic pieces of Zero on mannequins along the room.
Sorry I couldn't take any picture AT ALL.

Opening Night Party at the Metropolitan Museum

Every year the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum in New York hosts a Gala to celebrate the opening of a new fashion exhibition. It's the Oscars of the West Coast, where a red carpet is unrolled and celebrities walk it with the best fashions of the world. Fashion rules the night.
This year's Gala theme was Superheroes, and the whole blogosphere posted images of their favourite guests with their favourite outfits. We all knew who, what and when but, did we ever wonder what was behind the walls? How was the party? What did the people do inside?...
I found some footage on youtube from a 1982's Opening gala party at the MET, invitee included Andy Warhol, Gianni Versace, Diana Vreeeland, Marisa Berenson, Halston, Bianca Jagger... what a night!

The Saddest New: Yves Saint Laurent. RIP

Yesterday fashion genius Yves Saint Laurent left us for good... :'(
He was 71.
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Ayer el gran Yves Saint Laurent nos abandonó para siempre. :'(
Con 71 años.

Yes, Yes, Yes! Opening Ceremony Sales!!

Yes!

Tomorrow Friday our fave store ever, Opening Ceremony, is starting their summer's sale.

Up to 60% off on selected items... hopefully those selected items include Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony...

Patricia on Patricia

The story of Patricia Field and her impact on New York street-fashion didn't begin, as one might think, in the late 90's with her work as stylist for über famous TV show Sex and The City.

Although the series and posterior work in the film The Devil Wears Prada brought her name into the fray, for those not familiar with downtown New York, Patricia Field has influenced the look of countless women since she opened her own store, House of Field, in Greenwich Village in 1966, when she was just 24 years old. .... [keep reading]

I am collaborating with art & fashion web 212DressignRoom/BLOG. Rachel, founder and super woman, contacting me weeks ago to be part of this very personal project and I chose Patricia Field to be my first post, a woman whose work and personality I truly admire.
To read the full article go here... I hope you'll enjoy it! :)

Beryl Markham

On my way home from a BBQ (Labor's day) I found a cardboard box full of books and magazines. Books are my obsession, and so are magazines so i stopped dead to take a look.

I found three things of my liking: a US Vogue from 2005 with Salma Hayek on the cover, a book on Art and modern culture and a biography of female pilot Beryl Markham: Straight On Till Morning, the biography of Beryl Markham.

Beryl was born in the town of Ashwell, England, but spent most of her life in Kenya where her father moved the family when Markham was 4 years old.

She pursued a career on her own as a breeder and trainer of race horses (one of her horses won the most prestigious racing prizes in Kenya when she was just 24) and later as a bush pilot, which is quite something; Bush flying is a term for air operations carried out in remote, inhospitable regions of the world.

Beryl Markham, as opposed to Amelia Earhart, made to cross the Atlantic West/East in a solo flight, a trip that wouldn't take her where she wanted to finish, New York, but Nova Scotia, due to an engine failure. While she's pointed as being the first person to fly the Atlantic, such tittle belongs to Scottish Jim Mollison.

The love of Markham for flying was born thanks to pilot Denys Finch Hatton, who you might remember for both the movie and the book Out of Africa and with who Beryl had an affair when his relation with Karen Blixen was loosing up. Beryl was the outspoken "Felicity" in the movie.

Beryl Markham wrote about her childhood in Kenya in an book tittled West with the Night. The book was highly acclaimed by different authors including Ernest Hemingway, who found the writer not as appealing though: [...] this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book. (source)

According to her biographer Errol Trzebinski, the book's real author was her third husband, the ghost writer and journalist Raoul Schumacher, fact that didn't stop the pilot to enjoy the success.

Central Saint Martins' Pavel Ivancic

I discovered the work of Pavel Ivancic while searching for designs of graduate students for an article I was writing on European fashion schools.

When I moved to New York in 2005 there were two things I promised myself to do as soon as I'd have the change, a chance, I thought, that would arise pretty soon; one thing was to spend as much time as I could at Jazz venues. The second thing was to attend graduate shows from FIT and Parsons every year.

Jazz, I soon found out, was expensive and too "fancy", thus I never got the chance to attend as "frequently" as desired. FIT and Parsons' grad shows, on the other hand, weren't well advertised so I have missed them every year. I don't even know if it's even possible to attend them the same way you can attend Central Saint Martins' or The Royal Academy in Antwerp.

Pavel Ivanic presented his collection during last year's Central Saint Martins' Degree Show, fall 2007, a superb work of deconstructivism and minimalism if such things can be put together in the same sentence.

This year's CSM degree shows are taking place very soon. If you happen to be in London and want to know venues and dates, go here. And then let us know about it!. :)

Orfeu Negro

Although the day woke up nice and warm today, rain and wind reigned the city of New York for the last couple of weeks.
It's not a secret I'm longing for summer so I decided I better bring the summer myself... onto my TV screen.
Marcel Camus's Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) won an Oscar in 1960 for Best Foreign Language Film. It sets the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in Rio de Janeiro carnival, a tale on love, death, happiness and tragedy.
I've had the soundtrack of this movie (unforgettable "A Felicidade" by Antonio Carlos Jobim) for years in my ITunes but never saw this movie before... it was about time!

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A pesar de que hoy el dia amaneció calentito y primaveral, llevamos unas semanas qdonde lluvia y viento son los mandamases de New York.
Asi que en vista de la ausencia de verano he decidido que para que esperar más, yo mismita me lo traigo... a la pantalla de mi tele.
La peli Orfeu Negro (Orfeo Negro) de Marcel camus ganó el Oscar en 1960 a la Mejor Película de Habla Extranjera. Narra el mito de Orfeo y Eurídice durante el carnaval de Río, una historia donde no falta la Samba, la risa, la tragedia y mucho amor...
Tengo la banda sonora en mi ITunes desde hace años, y me imagino que no soy la única que tiene el "A Felicidade" de Antonio Carlos Jobim... lo peor de todo es que nunca antes había visto la peli... anda que ya era hora!

Alexandra Groover: An American Designer in London

The Shell Hooded Dress...

The Shell Shoulder Dress...

... by California native Alexandra Groover.

Groover currently lives in London, capital of the avant-garde, where she studied at Central Saint martins and trained with Alexander McQueen and Zandra Rhodes before launching her eponymous label.

She has been getting a lot of attention since January 08 (Refinery29, Diane Pernet, Montmartre Sketchbook ...) and hopefully she will be getting more because her designs truly deserve it.

Alexandra at BoomBox, courtesy of TeenVogue

Oh My Goodnes! Thank You So Much!

A Thank You note after a wonderful party is de rigueur.

I wanted to post earlier about last Saturday blogger's meeting organized by super street-style photographer Craig aka Altamira but my tight schedule serving tables -yes my dear, I came back from Spain really poor, the Euro is skyrocketing! and started to serve coffees in a super cool coffee shop in Williamsburg- that I haven't had time till now to sit down and pull some words together to send my appreciation to all the people I met that day.

Me and my friend Ana arrived a little late due to working schedule (again).
Everyone was there already: Wendy, Gala, Andrea, Jessica, Doshka, Jenny and Soren from Copenhagen (amazing couple) and of course Craig.

L.A. based jewelry designer Ninaki Priddy, who is in town because she won the GenArt contest this year, joined us late in the evening (some of you might remember Ninaki for the interview I did with her for milkshakechocolate).

I wanted to take pictures to show them in my blog but it is better if I don't show the ones i took or i'll be black-listed for the rest of my blogging life... i'm not a great photographer really.

It was great to see Jessica and Wendy again (the only ones I knew already personally), although i didn't really have the chance to talk with the later too much due to our "long" distance at the table.

Craig very kindly took a picture of me and called me to ask for my permission to post it in case i didn't like the way i look. That was lovely but hey, the picture is his and that's my face anyway.
I feel ashamed for that call and would like to apology: when he called me and said who he was (hi Patricia, it's Craig! how are you?) i said : Craig who?... I'm so bad with American names!!

Birthday under the rain...

Picture this: the past few days have been wonderful in NY, really sunny and warm. We all were thinking, yes! summer is here.
Then I woke up today and it's raining cats & dogs... it's cold and not very inspiring, all looks grey and wet. On top of everything else, it's my birthday...
What a day.
So i rescued a picture of old days in sunny Spain.

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Estos últimos dias han sido espectaculares en NY... solecito, calor y olor a flores.
Esta mañana me he levantado y no para de llover... esta todo gris y húmedo y hace un frío de narices. Qué tristeza, menudo cumpleaños...
Ahí os dejo una foto del último dia que estuve en Madrid. Ese mismo dia el cactus de mi madre, que solo florece una vez al año y por 24 horas, nos despidió lleno de flores. Todo un detalle.

the cactus, me & my mom
This cactus blooms only once a year and for only 24h. It bloomed the the day we were leaving from Spain. Which is the day the picture was taken.

Silk Making In Thailand

Designboom is featuring the story of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University Architecture professor Wichai Lailawitmongkhol who is "teaching a group of women the techniques involved in the ancient art of silk making", helping this way the village ‘hong hae’ with new ways of employment and self-sufficiency.

The fact that an architect is teaching a fashion technique to a little town in North-East Thailand in order to preserve the technique and the jobs in the area was the main reason why i started to read this interesting article. I miss stories like this in fashion blogs; we all are too concern on Paris, Milan, New York or London! Maybe we should travel a little more to see beyond! :)

HERE

image courtesy of © designboom

Anne Valerie Hash talk in Madrid!! May 9th

Are you in Madrid??
Don't miss French designer Anne Valerie Hash talk at the Istituto Europeo di Desing (Palacio de Altamira) at 3.30pm tomorrow Friday.

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A todos aquellos que esteis en Madrid, no os perdais la charla que va a dar la diseñadora francesa Anne Valerie Hash en el Istituto Europeo di Desing (Palacio de Altamira) mañana viernes a las 15.30!

The Costume Institute's Party of The Year

While I was sick and feverish in bed, the fashion world was enjoining the annual Costume Institute gala whose motif were Superheroes, due to the upcoming exhibition Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

La Wintor and Naomi Watts were the ones who stick to the motif more than anyone else, although cuffs in women weren't rare to see, a clear Superwoman hommage...

I hope I will be invited some day!, but meanwhile, I'm happy to enjoy the pictures style.com shares with us...

Coco Rocha & Anja Rubik, stunning



Sofia & Marc, surnames are no needed


Lou Doillon & Consuelo Castiglione, European style


Michelle Trachtenberg, probably my fave


Christina Ricci, lovely


Tilda Swinton & Justin Bond, matching shoes and charm

A [nother] new magazine. NICO

I haven't lived in another era so I can't really compare the current with any other.

For that reason it's all speculation when I say that the market haven't been so crowed with magazines never before. Every time i go to the news stand a new cover with a new name looks at me and I wonder, another??

The competition is tremendous, which is good if you're a reader (quality rules) but worrisome if you're a magazine maker (space is narrowing and advertisers get pickier and pickier).

In any case, as I said, quality is ruling these days. From Luxembourg arrives NICO, a new magazine. Although is not exactly new because this issue is their second.
On April 10th they throw a release party in Paris and Angelina A. Rafii, fashion editor of the mag, sent me the news. What a shame I don't live in Paris!. ^_+

Photos from the Gallery...

Photos from the setting up of the Javier Ferrer Vidal exhibition at Mister Pink in Valencia, Spain.

Agnes b. and Godard: Viva La France!

I'm back in NYC. Penny-less, jobless and full of energy. How do you eat that!?.

It's hard but fortunately spring time in the big apple is packed with events that will keep me busy while i desperately try to find a job.
And the first event to keep track on is due tomorrow!!

French designer Agnes b. is presenting the series Godard's 60's at Film Forum in New York City at 8.30pm, a series that will last till June 5th.

Agnes will introduce and open the series with my all times favourite movie Á Bout de Souffle (Breathless), one of those 60's French cinema's gems that Godard gave to us.

Jean Paul Belmondo never looked so sexy, neither Jean Seberg did.

“No film has been at once so connected to all that had come before it and yet so liberating . . .
Like a high-energy fusion of jazz and philosophy.”
– Richard Brody