• home
• About

Enfolded

Posted on July 27, 2010
Filed Under Around Town, Women | Leave a Comment

{via Jeppe Kumaki}

A woman stepped into a Metro subway car over the weekend wearing a long, simple white column dress that appeared to have been made out of a sheet. It was as if she’d woken up next to her lover, gathered the bedsheet about her like women do only in movies to stand up, but then continued — pausing to wrap her hair in a purple headscarf — out the door and down, underneath the street. It struck me as incredibly chic, modern, and a bit mysterious, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.

keep looking »

Not Dead + Three Favorite Dresses.

Posted on July 19, 2010
Filed Under Around Town | 4 Comments

Oh, well hi.

Your incredibly delinquent fashion blogger here, reporting for duty. Thanks to the number of you who wrote me, begging me to come back/making sure I wasn’t dead-in-a-ditch-somewhere. I have no real excuse for my absence other than overall busy-ness with work. I promise to be better, which for me means not obsessing over making a post long or super newsy, but sharing this site as more of a visual diary of fashion and whatever else I find interesting. Anyway, enough apologies and promises. Let’s kick things off with some fun dresses! I’m not one to post many personal style shots, but I can’t resist showing you three amazingly gorgeous dresses I’ve worn recently(ish) to events at work and around town.

This is a silk Mischen dress from Gilt Groupe that I wore to Washington Life’s Young & the Guest List party. I love the shot of bright coral with that peachy pink and bone neutral. I’m loving long dresses and skirts lately – the look is certainly enjoying a renaissance, thankgawd, effing minis…- and would love to style this dress up to wear semi-casually, too.

Another Mischen dress! This is a closet favorite at the moment, due in no small part to the alterations I had done by my all-time favorite seamstress gurus, Kristen and Erin of ReVamp (out of an apartment in Shaw, for now). Both work at Treasury when they’re not tailoring and repurposing. If you love something, have it tailored.

Speaking of fit, observe the dress I wore to the Corcoran Ball, made for me by local designer Taimur Baig. The dramatic molded shoulders were hand-embellished with jet beads and feathers, and the overall look was inspired by his Spring/Summer 2010 moth+butterfly themed collection. Yes, we do have this level of design talent in this town.

* who’s that girl with the dark Uma Thurman bob and awesome taste in dresses? My colleague, Kristin!

keep looking »

Gone Forties at the RAMMYs

Posted on June 8, 2010
Filed Under Around Town | 2 Comments

Food and fashion compete for top billing in my ever-expanding stable of interests, so I was thrilled to be invited to attend the RAMMYs this year, the awards gala for the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. The event was forties themed and what I hoped would be a fantastic eating opportunity. So, pretty much the ultimate combination for me, and I wasn’t disappointed. I snapped a handful of attendees in adorable outfits and glam hair and makeup (including my Sidewalk Style subject for this week), and I ate. Ohhh did I eat! There was so much decadent food that I was disappointed in finding myself full after checking out only two of the four region-specific stations (Chile, Virginia, Australia, Mexico). I wore a simple black forties dress (scallop-edged sleeves, peplum waist) and the whole glossy waved hair and red lips things that I love so much from that timeperiod. Unfortunately, the only photos I have of the outfit reveal a bit too much of my (very pretty, if I do say so) underthings. Next time I’ll remember a slip…

keep looking »

Spring Essentials

Posted on April 14, 2010
Filed Under Around Town, Only in Washington, Women | 4 Comments

I hosted a segment about spring essentials this morning on FOX5. Five essentials, to be exact. I talked about florals, having fun with color, lightweight scarves, cheery shift dresses, and footwear alternatives to flip-flops (a topic that will never die in this town). It was awesome, and the ladies who woke up early to model for it were hilarious and, most importantly, all on time (something I appreciate as a 15-minutes-late-as-standard person). Thanks to Nana, Treasury, and Bloomingdale’s for loaning clothes…and thanks to H&M and Urban Outfitters for having breezy return policies! Check out the segment here.

Afterward, I found fashion inspiration in the most unlikely of places: the FOX5 studio bathrooms! Neutrals teamed with a pop of neon or bright color – one of my current favorite trends for spring.

via chictopia

keep looking »

Activated.

Posted on February 22, 2010
Filed Under Around Town | Leave a Comment

Went to ReadySetDC’s Activation 2719 Saturday night.

keep looking »

Art & Affordability

Posted on January 20, 2010
Filed Under Around Town, Events | 2 Comments

Kevin Williams, Many Hearts

As I mentioned before, I’m having near-constant home decor fantasies, despite the fact that I have NO cash to allocate to it and no business buying “major” furniture for a rental property I share with others. That being said, artwork is one of the few things that makes sense to invest in now, since it takes up so little space and can lead multiple and fantastically different lives in different spaces.

So I’m loving the art sale and beauty event being held tomorrow from 5:30-7:30 at WVSA’s ARTiculate Gallery. They hold an open house “Third Thursday” every month, where art from those participating in their art outreach programs is shown and sold. Tomorrow’s (free) event will unveil artwork focused on art + beauty, and guests will have the opportunity to not tour their event spaces (art galleries seem to be the coolest event spaces these days), but purchase affordable art and get free makeovers and samples from event partner LIERAC Paris. Prices generally fall between $100-$300, and a percentage goes directly to the artist. Or for the same cost, you can commission a custom piece.

The works for this show will be unveiled tomorrow, but these are some of my favorites – love the lively (local!) street scenes and energy of the hearts. These found-art style paintings would add a lot of personality to a room, especially mixed in with other inexpensive finds or juxtaposed with modern decor.

Derek Holloman, Florida Avenue

Michael Tutson, Green Couch with Large Dog

Jamal Williams, Untitled

Also, love the local art-of-the-month concept called Project Dispatch (hat tip to DCist). Every month, a new surprise!

Brad Ulreich, Friction Powered

Corcoran alum! Chandi Kelley, The Storm (think of how great this could look arranged with actual books…)

Speaking of art (and the Corcoran), preparing for opening our next show has kept me really busy…generally I’ve got less time to blog now than I ever did. That’s why I’m trying to keep things fun and low-stress around here. So I’m sorry if things get quiet on occasion, because I know that they will. And at some point I hope to overhaul the categories and figure out how to integrate a propah blogroll for all my wonderful blogosphere friends. Thank all of you for reading whatever random bits of inspiration land here, and for your ideas and comments!

keep looking »

Norman Ambrose’s Intelligent Elegance

Posted on January 8, 2010
Filed Under Around Town, Men | 1 Comment

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting designer Norman Ambrose at Neiman Marcus. It was a random weekend day, I was there as part of errand-running, but I knew his work from last year’s Spring preview, where I saw one of his impeccable hand-beaded gowns for the first time. Aside from being enormously talented (he’s not yet 30) and sharply-dressed (he prefers the trad-but-slim-cut stylings of Tom Ford suits…for now, til he ventures into menswear), he’s wonderfully gracious and funny.

His line is so fantastically ladylike and classic, reminiscent of the days when women dressed for lunch, dinner and cocktails. Fittingly, he imagined an heiress making her trans-Atlantic voyage for his Spring collection.

Such shameless romance and fantasy! His off-white silk gown was inspired by what he called the “intelligent elegance” of Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief. Designing with glamour in mind is in his DNA: after fleeing Europe during WWII, his grandmother came to California and worked for silver screen designer Irene Lenz.

Norman asked a model to slip into this dress while we talked. The lining on this incredible party dress is just one example of the thoughtful details that set his pieces apart – the drape falls away from the body just so, and the coral lining creates a flattering pink glow on the exposed skin. Built-in lighting. Genius (I might add that Dorothy Draper often lined her curtains in pink to, I assume, achieve something of the same effect).

With a classy outfit or with something more casual and surprising, I love love love this “peony” evening jacket.

I’m so ready for Spring, can you tell (and look closely, the merchandise is already hitting stores)?! Since we are still in the throes of the cold winter months, though, I’m loving this iteration of the iconic YSL Le Smoking.

keep looking »